•--^^^ 



^A v^ 



L6„ 






■ \-^-'^' ^i>,%!*f''\v'-' \.'-^i^-\«\ 



.0 0^ 



^^^^ 






't- 







^<<. 
















o5 -^^ 









\0 ■< '■/ , 



\- 






j'iT** 






.^^' 



S^*"^ 



^. 



k»i>* * 






.0.' 



"00^ 



i^ > y -% 












'"''^^ 






,0' s '' " ° ' /> "o 

xV •^, 



- "b 0^" 






G^ 



,x\ 



.0* 

.0 q.. ^ I 






- J. - 1 






^ \^:^^^' c^'^^«'^^^ \^^'^<^\^ 

s x'^ • ^ •' , )k ■* <0 ^ -^ ■'" / . ^ s ^ /\ O ' „ , V 



o 0^ 



^0^ : 



'^" \>^ .-"."> *"^V ^^'^''v^^:. '^ v^^^-^, - 



^^ v^ 



.^^ "^^^ 



xO°^. 






* N O 



\A - 



% ^"^ 



A"* 






'o 



\0°x. 



> N>. ^ " " /^ 



\> ^^ " ° f ^ ,0" 




* 8 I 



I B 






vOC 



^OO 



^^^'^ 




}maj J^.-d. fi^eA^/s/T^- 



ADVENTURES IN CANADA; 



LIFE IN THE WOODS. 



EDITED BY 

JOHN cfGEIKIE. 



|llustraf£ir. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
POETEE & COATES. 



lo 



■ ox 



^-/^^J(7 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L 

PAM 

Boy-dreams about travelling. — Our family determines to goto 
Canada. — The first day on board. — Cure for sea-sickness. — 
Our passengers. — Henry's adventure. — We encounter a 
storm. — Height of the waves. — The bottom of the ocean. 

A fossil sMp. — The fishing-grounds. — See whales and 

icebergs. — Porpo.ses. — Sea-birds. — Lights in the sea. — 
The great Gulf of St. Lawrence. —Thick ice-fogs. — See land 
at last. — Sailing up the river. — Lund at Quebec . . 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Quebec. —Wolfe. — Montcalm's skull.— Toronto. —We set off 
for the bush. — Mud-roads. — A rough ride. — Our Log- 
house.— How it was built. — Our barn. — We get oxen and 
cows. — Elephant and Buckeye. — Unpacking our stores.— 
What some of our neighbors brought when they came. — Hot 
(^ays. — Bush costumes. — Sun-strokes. —My sisters have to 
turn salamanders. — Our part of the house-work . 



CHAPTER III. 

Clearing the land. —David's bragging, and the end of it.— 
Burning the log-heai)s. — Our logging bee. — What preju- 
dice can do. — Our fences and crops nearly bumed. — The 
woods on fire. — Building a snake fence. —" Shingle" pigs 
give us sore trouble. — " Breachy " horses and cattle . 

( iii ) 



18 



40 



ly Contents. 

CHAPTER IV. 

We begin our preparations for sowing. — Gadflies. — Mosqui- 
toes. — Han-owing experiences. — A huge fly. — Sandflies. 

— The poison of insects and serpents. — Winter wheat. — 
Tlie wonders of plant-life. — Our first " sport." — Wood- 
peckers. — "Cliittnunks." — The blue jay. — The blue bird. 

— The flight of birds 5T 



CHAPTER V. 

Some family changes. — Amusements. — Cow-hunting. — Our 
"side-line." — The bush. — Adventures with rattlesnakes. 
— Garter-snakes. — A frog's flight for life. — Black s(iuirrels 74 

CHAPTER VI. 

Spearing fish. — Ancient British canoes. — Indian ones. — A 
bargain with an Indian. — Henry's cold bath. — Canadian 
thundorstornis. — Poor Yorick's death. — Our glorious au- 
tumns. — Tlie change of the leaf. — Sunsets. — Indian sum- 
mer. — The fall rains and the roads. — The first snow. — 
Canadian cohl. — A winter landscape. — "Ice-storms." — 
Snow crystals. — The minute i)crfection of God's works. — 
Deer-shooting. — David's misfortune. — Useless cruelty. — 
Shedding of the stag's horns 89 

CHAPTER VII. 

Wolves. — My adventure with a bear. — Courtenay's cow and 
the wolves. — A fright in the woods by niglit. — The river 
freezes. — Our winter fires. — Cold, cold, cold! — A winter's 
journey. — Sleighing. — Winter mufflings. — Accidents 
through intense cold 127 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The aurora borealis. — " Jumpers." — Squaring timber. — Rails. 
--Camping out. — A public meeting. — Winter fashions. — 
My toe frozen. — A long winter's walk. — Hospitality. — 
Nearly lost in the woods 142 



Contents. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Involuntary racing. — A backwoods' parson.age. — Graves in 
tlie wilderness. — Notions of equality. — Arctic winters. 

— Kntied grouse. — Indian fishing in winter. — A marriage. 

— Our winter's pork 158 



CHAPTER X. 

Our neighbors. — Insect plagues. — Military officers' families in 

the bush. — An awkward mistake. — Dr. D nearly shot 

for a bear. — Major M . — Our candles. — Fortunate 

escape from a fatal accident 170 



CHAPTER XI. 

' Now Spring returns." — Sugar-making. — Rusn psalmody. — 
Bush preaching. — Worship under diiliculties. — A clerical 
Mrs. Partington. — Biology. — A ghost. — " It slips good." 
— Squatters 181 



CHAPTER XII. 

Bush magistrates. — Indian forest guides. — Senses quickened 
by necessity. — Breaking up of the ice. — Depth of the frost. 
— A grave in winter. — A ball. — A holiday coat . . 196 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Wild leeks. — Spring birds. — Wilson's poem on the blue bird. 
— Downy woodpeckers. — Passenger pigeons. — Their num- 
bers. — Roosting places. — The frogs. — Bull frogs. — Tree 
frogs. — Flying squirrels 207 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Our spring crops. — Indian corn. — Pumpkins. — Melons. — 
Fruits. — Wild flowers 22fl 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Indians. — Wigwams. — Dress. — Can the Indians be civi- 
lized? — Their past decay as a race. — Alleged innocence of 
savage lite. — Narrative of Father Jogiies, the Jesuit mission- 
ary ........ 

CHAPTER XVI. 



221 



The medicine-man. — Painted faces. — Medals. — An Em- 
bassy. — Religious notions. — Feast of the dead. — Christ- 
ian Indians. — Visit to the Indians on Lake Huron. — Stolidi- 
ty of the Indians. — Henry exorcises an Indian rifle . . 260 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The humming-bird. — Story of a pet. — Canada a good countrj- 
for poor men. — A bush story of misfortune. — Statute labor. 
— Tortoises. — The hay season. — Our wagon-driving. - 
Henry and I arc nearly drowned. — Henry falls ill. — Back- 
woods' doctors 279 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

American men and women. — Fireflies. — Profusion of insect 
life. — (jrasshoppers. — Frederick and David leave Canada. 
— Soap-mjiking. — Home-made candles. — Recipe for wash- 
ing quickly. — Wanting letters. — The parson for driver . 298 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Americanisms. — Our poultry. — The wasps. — Their nests. — 
" Bob's " skill in killing them. — Raccoons. — A hunt. — 
Raccoon cake. — The town of Busaco. — Summer " sail- 
ing." — Boy drowned. — French settlers . . . 313 

CHAPTER XX. 

Apple-bees. — Orchards. — Gorgeous display of apple-blossom. 
— A meeting in the woods. — The ague. — Wild parsnips. — 
Man lost in the woods ...... 326 



Contents. vii 



CHAPTER XXI 

^ tornado. — Bats. — Deserted lots. — American inquisitivc- 
uess. — An election agent ..... 339 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A j(jurney to Niagara. — River St. Clair. — Detroit. — A slave's 
escape. — An American Steamer. — Description of the Falls 
of Niagara. — Fearful catastrophe .... 849 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The suspension-bridge at Niagara. — The Whirlpool. — The 
battle of Lundy's Lane. — Brock's monument. — A soldier 
nearli^ drowned ....... 367 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Canadian lakes. — The exile's love of home. — The colored 
people in Canada. — Kice. — The Maid of the Mist. — Home- 
spun cloth. — A narrow road. — A grumbler. — New Eng- 
land emigrants. — A potato pit. — The winter's wood . 378 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Thoughts for the future. — Changes. — Too hard study. — 
Education in Canada. — Christmas markets. — Winter 
amusements. — Ice-boats. — Very cold ice. — Oil-springs. — 
Changes on the farm. — Growth of Canada. — Tie American 
climate. — Old Eng and again .... 991 



lAVi: IN I III: WOODS. 



('II A I' I" !■: i: I. 

Hoy (IrrnniN iilniiil Innrllinf!;, — Our (iimily ili'trniiini-n Ici jjo to 
('niiMilii. — 'I'lu' first iliiy oil linanl. — ("lire for ncii-oirkiu'di. — 
Our luisBoiiHiM'K, — IIi'Iii'v'k lulvoiitiirn. - - Wo t'lu'oiinti'i' n i>ton». 

Iloi^lit ol' llio wiivpB 'I'lio luilloiii ot' tho oi'i'iiii. — A I'okkH 

^liip. — 'I'lio tlsliliijj-nioiinilfi. — Son wluiloK iiiul icoliorg!*. — I'or- 
|<oi»(>». — Son-liinln. — l.inlito in llio noi«. — Tlio niciil tiiiil'ol' St. 
LnwiPiiiH'. — riiloU icr-lonn, — Sco land itt IhkI. — Sailing: up tlio 
vivor. — I, mill Ml i,>ni'ln'(-. 



I WONDl'Jv ir (>vrr llnTc W(M'o m hoy wlio did 
' not wi^li to hnvrlV I Kiunv I did, smd u^i'd to 
spend liiiiiw ;iu hour llinikiiii; kI' m11 llu> wondrilld 
lliilliis 1 slioidd si'(>. ;md ol' w li.il I would luiu;', lii'ino 
\\\u'\\ 1 l-('lunn'd. lUmKs dl' tiiixrl 1 d(>>(>Uli>d 
j^rordil\ ;md \iMV oond fi'MtliiiLj lor l>i»\ s, ;is u.lj 
:is lor ginwM luoii. I li;i\o i\l\\;i\s (himght (hoin. I 
lio^iui with *' Koliinson ('iiisoo. " liko most l>o^ s — 
lot- who liMs not I'ond his slot y ? ItiurkliMi'dt, tho 
ti;r, olloi'. I'oiind A \ oini^ Ar;d> ro;idiii;< :i ti;m^l;\lion 
of it in tho i\oov ol' his li\tluM''s tout \u tho do>iM"t, 
Hill 1 don't thiid\ 1 o\ Of w ishod to Ih^ liko him, or 
to to;>ui in ;> ^^\ld \oni:mlio \\;u. or " y;v> to SOtt>' 



2 Boy-dreams about Travelling. 

as it is culled, like many other boys I liaA'e known, 
which is a very different thing from having harm- 
less fancies, that one would like to see strange 
races of men and strange countries. Some of my 
schoolmates, whom nothing would content but 
being sailors, early cured me of any thought of 
being one, if ever 1 had it, by what I knew of their 
story when they came back. One of them, James 
Iloper, I did not see for some years after he 
went off, but when I met Inm at last among the 
ships, he was so worn and broken down I hardly 
knew him again, and he had got so many of the low 
forecastle ways abt)ut him, that I could not bear his 
company. Another, Robert Simpson, Avent one 
voyage to Trebizond, but that cured him. He came 
back perfectly contented to stay at home, as he had 
found the romance of sailoring, which had lured him 
away, a very different thing from the reality. He 
had never counted on being turned out of his bed 
every other night or so for something or other, as he 
was, or being clouted with a wet swab by some 
sulky fellow, or having to fetch and carry for the 
men, and do their biddinir, or to climb wet rigo-ino: 
in stormy weather, and get drenched every now 
and then, without any chance of changing his 
clothes ; not to speak of the difference between his 
nice room at home and the close, crowded, low- 
roofed forecastle, where he could hardly see for 
tobacco smoke, and where he had to eat and sleep 
with companions whom he would not have thought 



The First Day on Board. 3 

of s[)eaking to before he sailed. He came back 
quite sobered down, and after a time went to study 
law, and is now a barrister in good jn'actice. 

Yet I was very glad when I learned that we were 
going to America. The great woods, and the sport 
I would have with the deer and bears in them, and 
the Indians, of whom I had read so often, and the 
curious wiKlness there was in the thought of settling 
where there were so few people, and living so dif- 
ferently from any thing 1 had known at home, 
quite captivated me. I was glad when the day of 
sailing came, and went on board our ship, the 
Ocean King^ with as much delight as if I had been 
going on a holiday trip. There were eight of us 
altogether — five brothers and three sisters (my 
father and mother were both dead), and I had 
already one brother in America, while another 
staid behind to push his way in England. The 
anchor oiice heaved, we were soon on our way down 
tlie Mersey, and the night fell on us while we were 
still exploring the wonders of the ship, and taking. 
an occasional peep over the side at the shore. 
When we had got into the channel, the wind having 
come round to the south-east, the captain resolved 
to go by the northern route, passing the upper end 
of Ireland. All we saw of it, however, was very 
little ; indeed, most of us did not see it at all, for 
the first swell of the sea had sent a good many to 
their berths, in all stages of sickness. One old 
gentleman, a Scotchman, who had been boasting 



4 Cure for Sea-sickness. 

that lie had a preventive that avouIcI keep him cleai 
of it, made us all laugh by his groans and wretcli- 
edness ; for his specific had not only foiled, but had 
set him off amono-st the first. He had been told 
that if he took enough gingerbread and whiskey, 
he might face any sea, and he had followed the 
advice faitlifully ; but as the whiskey itself was fit 
to make him sick, even on shore, you may judge 
how much it and the gingei'bread together helped 
him when the ship was heaving and rolling under- 
his feet. AVe boys did not fail, of course, when we 
heard him lamenting that either the one or the 
other had crossed his lips, to come over their names 
pretty often in his hearing, and advise each other 
to try some, every mention of the words bringing 
out an additional shudder of discfust from the unfor- 
tunate suH'erer. My eldest sister had sent me, just 
before coming on board, for some laudanum and 
mustard, Avhich she was to mix and apj^ly some way 
that was sure, she said, to keep her well ; but she 
^ot sick so instantly on the ship beginning to move, 
that she forgot them, and we had the nmstard after- 
wards at dinner in America, and the laudanum 
was a long time in the house for medicine. For a 
few days every thing was unpleasant enough, but 
gradually all got right again, and even the ladies 
ventured to rea])pear on deck. 

Of course, among a number of people gathered 
m a ship, you were sure to meet strange characters. 
A little lijiht man in a wio- was soon the butt of the 



Our Passenriers. 5 

caLin, lie wotilcl ask siicli silly questions, and saj 
such outrao;eous thinos. He was takino; cliecsos, 
and tea, aiid I don't know what else, to America 
with liiiii, for fear ho would get nothing to eat there ; 
ami he was dreadrully alarmed, by one of tlie pas- 
senizers, who had been over beiore, tellinrr him he 
would hnd cockroach pie the chief dainty in Can- 
ada. I believe the cheeses he had with him had 
come from America at first. He thought the best 
thing to make money by in Canada, was to sow all 
the country with mustard-seed, it yielded such a 
great crop, lie said ; and he seemed astonished at 
all the table laughing at the thought of what could 
possibly be done with it. There was another per- 
son in the cabin — astitl", conceited man, with a very 
stranoe head, the whole face and brow runnin<i 
back from the chin, and oreat standing-out ears. 
He was a distant relation of some adnn'ral, I 
believe ; but if he had been the admiral himself, he 
could not have carried his head higher than he did. 
Nobody was good enough for him. It seemed a 
condescension in him to talk with any one. But 
lie soon lost all his greatness, notwithstandino- his 
airs, by his asking one day, when we were speaking 
about Italy, " What river it was that ran north and 
south along the coast ? " in that country. We 
were speaking of a road, and he thought it was 
about a rivei. Then he asked, the same day, 
where the Danube Avas, and if it were a larcre river 
and when some one spoke about Sicily, and sai*.' 



6 Henrifs Adventure. 

that it IukI been hold by the Carthaginians, he 
wished to know if these people held it now. Boy 
as I was, I could not help seeinir what a dreadful 
thino; it was to be so ignorant ; and I determined 

that I would never be like Mr. (I sha'n't tell 

his name), at any rate, but would learn as much 
as ever I could. 

I dare say we were troublesome enough to the cap- 
tain sometimes, but, if so, he took his revenge on 
one of us after a time. One day we were phiying 
witli a rope and ])ulley which was hooked high up 
in the rio-cinti^. There was a lai'<ie lo(jn at the one 
end, and the other, after ])as.sing through the block, 
hung down on the deck. Henry had just ])ut this 
loop over his shoulders, and fitted it nicely below 
his arms, when the captain chanced to see him, and, 
in an instant, before he knew what he was going 
to do, he had hauled him up ever so high, with all the 
passengers looking at nim and laughing at the 
ridiculous figure he cut. It was some time before 
he would let him down, and as he was a pretty big 
lad, and thouglit himself almost a man, he felt 
terribly affronted. But he had nothing for it when 
ne got down but to hide in his berth till his pride 
got cooled and till the laugh stopped. We were 
all careful enough to keep out of Captain Morrison's 
way after that. 

One way or other the days passed very pleasantly 
to lis boys, whatever they were to older people. It 
was beautiful, when the weather was fine and the 



We encounter a Storm. 7 

wind rin-lit, to see how we glided tlirouoili the 
green galleries of the sea, which rose, crested with 
white, at each side. One day and night we had, 
what we tliought, a great storm. The sails were 
nearly all struck, and I heard the mate say that the 
two that were left did more harm than good, because 
they only drove the ship deeper into the water. 
When it grew nearly dark, I crept up the cabin- 
stairs to look along the deck at the waves ahead. 
I could see them rising like great black mountains 
seamed with snow, and coming with an awful mo- 
tion towards us, making the ship climb a huge hill, 
as it were, the one moment, and go down so steeply 
the next, that you could not help being afraid that 
it was sinking bodily into the depths of the sea. 
The wind, meanwhile, roared through the rojies and 
yards, and every little while there was a hollow 
thump of some wave against the bows, followed by 
the rush of water over the bulwarks. I had read 
the account of the storm in Virgil, and am sure he 
must have seen something like what I saw that 
night to have written it. There is an ode in Hor- 
ace t^ him, when he was on the point of setting out 
on a voyage. Perhaps he saw it then. The de- 
scription in the Bible is, however, the grandest pic- 
ture of a storm at sea : " The Lord commandeth, 
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the 
waves of the deep. They mount up to heaven, 
they go down again to the depths : their soul is 
taelted because of trouble. They reel to and fro 



8 Ileiffht of the Waves. 

and stagger like a drunken man, and are at tlieir 
wit's end." " The Lord hath his way in the wliirl- 
wind and in tlie storm, and the elouds are tlie dust 
of his feet." Yet I have found since, that thougli 
tlie waves appear so very high, they are much lower 
than we su])pose, our notions of them being taken 
from looking up at them from the hollow between 
two. Dr. Scoresby, a great authority, measured 
those of the Atlantic in different weathers, and 
found that they seldom rise above fifteen feet, a 
great storm only causing them to rise to thirty-five, 
or, at most, forty, Avliich is very different from 
*' running mountains high," as we often hear said. 
I could not help pitying the men who had to go up 
to the yards and rigging in the terrible wind and 
rain, with the ship heaving and rolling so dread- 
fully, and work with the icy cold sheets and ropes. 
Poor fellows ! it seems a wonder how they ever can 
hold on. Indeed, they too often lose their hold, 
and then there is no hope for them ; down they go, 
splash into the wild sea, Avitli such a scream of 
agony as no one can ever forget after liaving heard 
it. My brother, on crossing some years after, saw 
a man thus lost — a fine, healthy Orkneyman, 
whom some sudden lurch of the ship threw from 
the outside of the yard. Though it was broad day- 
light, and though they would have done any thing 
to help him as they saw him rising on the wave, 
further and further behind them, swimming bravely, 
they were perfectly unable even to make an effort. 



The Bottom of tJie Ocean. 9 

the sea rolling so wildly, and the ship tearing on 
through the waves so swiftly. So they had, .vith 
hearts like to break, to let him drown before their 
very eyes. 

As we ffot further over we heard a iireat deal 
about the Banks of Newfoundland, and, naturally 
enouo;]i, thouoht the shores of that island were what 
was meant ; but we found, when we reached them, 
that it was only the name given to the shallower 
part of the sea to the south of the coast. The 
soundings of the electric telegraph have since shown, 
that from Ireland on the one side, and Newfound- 
land on the other, a level table-land forms the floor 
of the ocean, at no great depth, for some hundreds 
of miles, the space between sinking suddenly on 
both sides into unfathomable abysses. What the 
depth of the Atlantic is at the deepest is not known, 
but I remember seeing a notice of a surveying 
ship, which had been able to sink a line in the 
southern section of it to the wonderful depth 
of seven miles, finding the bottom only with that 
great length of rope. The banks are, no doubt, 
formed in part from the material carried by the great 
ocean current which flows up from the Gulf of 
Mexico, washing the shores all the way ; and then, 
passing Newfoundland, reaches across even to the 
most northern parts of Europe and the Arctic circle. 
If the quantity of mud, and gravel, and sand depos- 
ited on the banks, be great enough to bury some 
of the many wrecks of all sizes which go to the bot" 



10 A Fossil Ship. 

torn there, what a wondeiful siglit some future ages 
may have ! The floor of tlie ocean has often, else- 
where, been gradually or siuldcnly raised into dry 
land ; and if the Banks should be so, and the 
wrecks be buried in them before they had rotteu 
away, geologists of those days will perhaps be lay- 
ing bare, in some quarry, now far down in the sea, 
the outline of a fossil ship, with all the things it 
had in it when it was lost ! 

We met a great many fishing-boats in this part, 
some from Ncwioundland, some from Nova Scotia, 
others, again, from the northern coasts of the United 
States, with not a lew all the way from France. 
We were becalmed one day close to some from the 
State of Maine, and one of them very soon sent off 
a boat to us, with some as fine-looking men in it as 
you could well see, to barter fish with the captain 
for some pork. For a piece or two of the sailor's 
mess pork, which I thought dreadful looking, it was 
so yellow and fat, they threw on board quite a 
number of cod-fish and some haddocks, giving us, I 
thought, by far the best of the exchange. I am 
told that a great many of these fishing-vessels aro 
lost every year by storms, and occasionally some 
are run down and sunk in a moment by a ship 
passing over them. They are so rash as to neglect 
hangpng out lights, in many cases, and the weather 
is, moreover, often so very foggy, that, even when 
they do, it is impossible to see them. The ships, 
if gf^i*^ at all fast, sound fog-horns every now and 



Tlie Fishing-grounds. 11 

then on such days — that is, they sliould do it — 
but I fear they sometimes forget. There is for less 
humanity in some people tluin one would like to 
see, even the chance of causing death itself seeming 
to give them no concern. I remember once going 
in a steamer up the Bay of Fundy, over part of the 
same ground, when we struck a fishing-schooner 
in the dead of the night; but the captain only 
swore at it for being in his way, and never stopped 
to see if it were nuich injured or not, though, for 
any thing he or any one knew, it might be in a 
sinkino; state. Whether it be thoughtlessness or 
passion at the time, or stony hard-heartedness, it is 
an awful thing to be unkind. Uncle Toby, who put 
the fly out of the window rather than kill it, makes 
us love him for his tenderness, even in an instance 
so slight. 

One day we saw two Avhales at a short distance 
from the ship, but their huge black backs, and the 
spout of water they made from their breathing- 
holes when they Avere taking a fresh breath, was 
all we saw of them. Some of the youngsters, how- 
ever, made some sport out of the sight, by telling a 
poor simple woman, who had got into the cabin, 
how they had read of a ship that once struck on a 
great black island in the middle of the sea, and 
went down, and how the sailors got off on the 
rock, and landed their provisions, and were mak- 
mg themselves comfortable, when one of them, un- 
tortunately, thought he Avould kindle a fire to cook 



12 See WJiales and Icebergs. 

something; but hud hardly done it before they dis- 
covered tliiit they liad got on tlie back of a sleep- 
ing whale, which no sooner felt the heat burning it 
than it plunged down into the waves, with all on 
it ! It is a 2^art of one of the boy's stories we have 
all read, but the poor creature believed it, listening 
to them with her eyes fixed on their faces, and ex- 
pressing her p'ty for the sailors who had made the 
mistake. 

We had two or three icebergs in sight, when 
near Newfoundland, and vc^i-y beautiful they were. 
Only think of great mountains of ice shining in 
the sun with every color that light can give, 
and cascades of snowy-wliite water leaping down 
their sides into the sea. Those we saw were per- 
haps fi'om eighty to a hundred feet high, but they 
are sometimes even two hundred ; and as there are 
eight feet of ice below the water for every one 
above, this would make a two hundred feet iceberg 
more than the third of a mile from the bottom to 
the top. They are formed on the shores of the icy 
seas in the north, by the alternate melting and 
freezing of the edge of those ice-rivers which we 
call glaciers, which o-et thrust out from the land till 
they are undermined by the sea, and cracked by 
summer thaws, and then tumble into the waters, 
to find their way wherever tlie currents may carry 
them. Dr. Kane and Captain M'CIintock both 
saw them in the different stages of their growth ; 
and I don't know a more interestins; narrative than 



Icebergs. 13 

that of tlie ascent to tlie to]) of tlie great frozen 
stream, on the sliore of \Vasliin<;ton's Land, by the 
former, and his looking away to the north, east, 
and south, over the vast, broken, many-coh)red 
continent of ice, whicli stretches in awful de])tli 
and unbroken continuity over Greenland. The 
icebergs often carry otf from the shore a vast quan- 
tity of stones and gravel, which gets frozen into 
them. Dr. Scoresby says he has seen one of them 
carrying, he should think, from fifty to a hundred 
thousand tons of rocks on it. It has, no doubt, 
been in this way that most of the great blocks and 
boulders of stone, different from any in their neigh- 
borhood, which lie scattered over many parts of 
the world, have been taken to their present places.* 
I must not forget the porpoises — great pig-like 
fish, which once or twice mocked us by racing 
alongside, darting a-head every now and then like 
arrows, as if to show us how slow we were in com- 
parison — nor the birds, which never left us the 
whole way, and must sleej) on the water when they 
do sleep — nor the beautiful lights whicli shone in 
the sea at night. We used to sit at the stern look- 
ing at them for long together. The ridges of the 
waves would sometimes seem all on fire, and streaks 
and spots of light would follow the ship with every 

* What is known as the " houkler clay," however, seems rather 
to bo the moraine of ancient gUiciers — that is, tlic wreck of broken 
rocks torn away by them in tiieir passage througli the valleys, and 
now left bare by their having melted away. 
2 



14 Porpoises and Sea-birds. 

moment's progress. Sometimes, as the water 
rushed round the stern and up from beneath, they 
would ghtter hke a shower of stars or diamonds, 
joining presently in a sheet of flame. Now they 
would look like balls of glowing metal ; then, 
presently, they Avould pass like ribbons of light. 
There was no end to the combinations or changes 
of beauty ; the very water joined to heighten them 
by its ceaseless mingling of colors, from the 
whitest foam, through every shade of green, to the 
dark mass of the ocean around. These appearances 
come from the presence of myriads of creatures of 
all sizes, chiefly the different kinds of Sea-nettles,* 
some of which are so small as to need a microscope 
to show their parts, while others form large masses, 
and shine like the suns of these watery constella- 
tions. They arc luiiiinous l)v a j)liosphoric light 
they are able to secrete ; their brilliancy being 
tlms of the same kind as that which smokes and 
burns in the dark from the skin of fish, and makes 
the lights in so many difl'erent insects. The phos- 
phorus used in manufactures is obtained from 
burned bones. I have often seen a similar light in 
the back woods on the old half-rotten stumps of 
trees which had been cut down. The oIow-woito 
of England and the fire-fly of Canada are familiar 
examples of tho same wonderful power of self- 
illumination. Indeed, few countries are without 

* The jelly-fish, or medusa, which we so often see on oai 
beaches, is a familiar example of the class. 



LijldH in the Sea. 15 

some species of insect possessing this characteristic. 
One cannot help thinking how nniversal hfe is when 
they see it as it is shown in these sights at sea — 
milhons on niiHions ot" sliining creatures in tlie jiath 
of a single shij) ; and the ha])j)iness which life gives 
us in our youth makes us admire the kindness of 
God, who, by making every thing so full of it, has 
crowded the air, antl earth, and waters, with so 
much enjoyment. 

Our sabbaths on board were not quite like those 
at home ; but, as we liad a clergyman with us, 
who was going with his family to a cha})laincy in 
the Far West, we had prayers and sermons in the 
forenoon, when the weather jiermitted. But a 
good many of the passengers were not very respect- 
ful to the day, and some, who, I dare say, were 
very orderly on Sundays at liome, seemed to act 
as if to be on a voyage made every day a week- 
day. 

We were now in the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
which was called so because Cabot, who discovered 
it, clianced to do so on the day set apart to that 
saint. But we were some time in it before we saw 
land, and there was more care taken about the 
position of the ship than ever before, for fear we 
should, like so many vessels, fall foul of the island 
of Anticosti, or run on shore in a foo;. We had 
had thick w'eather occasionally from our approach- 
ing Newfoundland, and it still prevailed now and 
then till we got near Quebec. The icebergs com- 



16 Tlikh L e-f'.jif. 

\\\f^ down from the north, and the different tenv 
pei-ature of tlie air coming over them and over the 
I'leat frozen reiiions, cause these thick mists, by 
condensing the evaporation from the warmer sea, 
and preventing its rising into the air. We could 
sometimes hardly see the length of the bowsprit 
before us, and as the sun would be shut out for 
days together, so that we could not find out our 
position, it made ever}' one anxious and half afraid. 
Many ships are lost by being muffled in these 
thick clouds. They drive, at ftiU spee<l, against 
iceberffs or on sunken rocks, or ashore on the wild 
coast, when they think themselves safe in an open 
clear sea. I often wondered, when crossing again, 
some vears after, in a crreat steamer, how we ever 
escaped. On we would go in it, with the fog-bell 
ringing and horns blowing, to be sure, but in per- 
fect blind ignorance of what lay a few yards ahead. 
Other ships, icel^ergs, rocks, or tlie iron shore, 
might be close at hand, yet on, on, up and down 
went the great shafts, and beat, beat, went the 
huge paddle-wheels — the sliip trembling all over, 
as if even it were half uneasy. It is a wonder, 
not that so many, but that so few ships should be 
lost, covering the sea as they do at all seasons, like 
great flocks of seafow 1. 

After a time the land became visible at last, first 
on one side and then on the other, and the pilot 
was taken on board — a curious looking man tc 
most of us, in his extraordinaiy mufflings, and with 



»«r w thr ??>•<--. !T 



■^. Tlie miace koBseSs midi ihewr hic:^ tvv^ Kk« 



as the odie!r?s. and die K»c of <k4ds of ^\x?«y 
fr&m ihe brown earth to tho lUrk ir<>»<\ 

lie >..:..:. v> - .l?^ every hotv _; 

out at the back of the j^icturo, hke great ^lu 
- * :!$ of the lanil, nwde \x im^x^VV \ 

:r>om the deck. Then there x>7i^ I 

sunsets, vrith die vatter Ukc glass, and the shotvs 
rejected in them fir down into their iWpths, aiui 
the curtains of goKl and crimson, and vi<>lot, and 
gre«3j by tunis, as the twilight 6*deil into iiighU 



t« 



18 Quebec. 



CHAPTER II. 

Quebec. — Wolfe. — Montcalm's skull. — Toronto. — We set cff fot 
the bush. — Mud-roads. — A rough ride. — Our Log-lu>use. — 
How it was built. — Our barn. — We get oxeu and cows. — 
Elephant and Buckeye. — Unpacking our stores. — What some 
of our neighbors brought when they came. — Hot da^'s. — Bush 
costumes. — Sun-strokes. —My sisters have to turn salamanders. 
— Our part of the iiouse-work. 

OUR landing at Qiu'bec was only for a very 
short time, till some freight was delivered, our 
vessel havino" to cto up to jSIontreal before we left 
it. But we had stay enough to let us climb the 
narrow streets of this, the oldest of Canadian cities, 
and to see some of its sights. The view from 
different points was unspeakably grand to us after 
being so long pent uj) in a ship. Indeed, in itself 
it is very fine. Cape Diamond and the fortifica- 
tions hanging high in the air — the great basin 
below, hke a sheet of the purest silver, where a 
hundred sail of the line might ride in safety — the 
village spires, and the fields of every shape dotted 
with countless white cottages, the silver thread of 
the River St. Charles winding hither and thither 
among them, and, in the distance, shutting in this 
varied loveliness, a range of lofty mountains, 



Montcalni's Skull. 19 

purple and blue by turns, standing out against the 
sky in every form of" picturesque beauty, made 
altogether a glorious panorama. 

Of" course, the great sio-ht of siiihts to a Briton is 
the field of battle on the Plains of Abraham, where 
Wolfe, on the 13th September, 1750, won for us, 
at the price of his own life, the magnificent colonies 
of what is now British North America. AVolfe's 
l)ody was taken to England for burial, and now 
lies in the vault below the parish church at Green- 
wich. That of INIontcalm, the French general, 
who, also, was killed in the battle, was buried in 
the Ursuline Convent, where they showed us a 
ghastly relic of him — his fleshless, eyeless skull, 
kept now in a little glass case, as if it were a thing 
fit to be exhibited. It was to me a horrible sight 
to look at the grinning death's head, and think 
that it was once the seat of the gallant spirit who 
died so nobly at his post. His virtues, which all 
honor, are his fitting memorial in every mind, 
and his appropriate monument is the tomb erected 
by his victorious enemies — not this parading him 
in the dishonor and humiliation of the grave. It 
is the spirit of which we speak when we talk of a 
hero, and there is nothing in common with it and 
the poor mouldering skull that once contained it. 

Quebec is, as I have said, a beautiful place in 
Bummer, but it must be bad enough in winter. 
The snow lies till well on in May, and it is so deep 
that, in the country, every thing but houses and 



20 Toronto. 

trees and other liigli objects are covered. Tlie 
whole hmdscape is one unbroken sheet of white, 
over whicli you may go in any direction Avithout 
meeting or seeing tlie smallest obstacle. But peo- 
l)le get used to any thing; and even the terrible 
cold is so met and resisted by double window- 
sashes, and lur cajts, and gloves, and coats, that the 
inhabitants seem actnally to enjoy it. 

When we got to Toronto, we found that my 
brother Robert, who was already in the country, 
had been travelling in different directions to look 
out a place for us, and had at length bought a 
farm in the township of Bidport, on the banks of 
the River St. Clair. We therefore sta}ed no 
longer in Toronto than ])Ossible, but it took us 
some time to get every thing ])ut right after the 
voyage, and we were further detained by a letter 
from my brother, telling us that the house on the 
fiirm coidd not be got ready for us for a week or 
two longer. We had thus plenty of time to look 
about us, and strange enough every thing seemed. 
The town is very different now-a-days ; but, then, 
it was a stran-olinn; collection of wooden houses, of 
all sizes and shapes, a large one next to a miserable 
one-story shell, ])laced with its end to the street. 
There were a few brick houses, but only a few. 
The streets were like a newly-ploughed field in 
rainy weather, for mud, the w^agons often sinking 
almost to the axles in it. There was no gas, and 
the pavements were both few and bad. It ha* 



dfud-roads. 21 

come to be a fine place now, but to us it seemed 
very wretclied. While we were waiting, we laid 
in whatever provision we thought we Avould need 
for a good while, every thing being much cheaper 
in Toronto than away in the bush. A month or 
les's saw us moving, my sisters going with Andrew 
and Henry l)y water, while Frederic was left be- 
hind in an office ; Robert, my Canadian brother, 
and I going by land, to get some business done up 
the country as we passed. The stage in which we 
took our places was a huge atlair, hung on leather 
springs, with a broad shelf behind, supported by 
straps from the upper corners, for the luggage. 
There were three seats, the middle one movable, 
which it needed to be, as it came exactly in the 
centre of the door. The machine and its load were 
drawn by four horses, rough enough, but of good 
bottom, as they say. The first few miles were 
very pleasant, for they had been macadamized, 
but after that, what travelling ! The roads had 
not yet dried up, after the spring rains and thaws, 
and as they were only mud, and much travelled, 
the most the horses could do was to pull us through 
at a walk. When we came to a very deep hole, 
we had to get out till the coach floundered through 
it. Every here and there, where the water had 
overflowed from the bush and washed the road 
completely away in its passage across it, the ground 
was strewn with rails which had been taken from 
the nearest fences to hoist out some wheels that 



22 A Rough Ride. 

nad stuck fast. At some places there had been a 
wholesale robbery of rails, which had been thrown 
into a gap of this kind in the road, till it was prac- 
ticable for travellers or wagons. After a time we 
had to bid adieu to the comforts of a coach and be- 
take ourselves to a great open wagon — a mere 
strong box, set on four wheels, with pieces of j)]ank 
laid across the top for seats. In this affair — some 
ten feet long and about four broad — we went 
through some of the worst stages. But, beyond 
Hamilton, we got back our coach again, and for a 
time went on smoothly enough, till we reached a 
swamp, which had to be crossed on a road made 
of trees cut into lengths and laid side by side, their 
ends resting on the trunks of others placed length- 
wise. You may think how smooth it would be, 
with each log a different size from the one next it 
— a great patriarch of the woods rising high be- 
tween " babes " half its thickness. The whole 
fabric had, moreover, sunk pretty nearly to the 
level of the water, and the alder bushes every here 
and there overhung the edges. As we reached it 
lute at night, and there was neither moon nor stars, 
and a yard too much either way would have sent 
coach and all into the water, men had to be got 
from the nearest house to go at the horses' heads 
with lanterns, and the passengers were politely re- 
quested to get out, and stumble on behind as they 
could, except two ladies, avIio were allowed to stay 
and be battered up and down inside, instead of 



A Rough Ride. 23 

having to sprawl on in tlie dark with us. This 
was mj first exj)cnence of " corduroy roads," but 
we had several more stretches of them before we 
got to our journey's end. I have long ago learned 
all the varieties of badness of which roads are capa- 
ble, and questions whether " corduroy" is entitled 
to the first rank. There is a kind made of thick 
planks, laid side by side, which, when they get old 
and broken, may bid fair for the palm. 1 have 
seen a stout, elderly lady, when the coach was at 
a good trot, bunij)ed fairly against the roof by a 
sudden hole and the shock against the plank at the 
other side. But, indeed, "corduroy" is dreadful. 
When we came to it I tried every thing to save my 
])Oor bones — sitting on my hands, or raising my 
body on them — but it wa,s of little use ; on we 
went, thump, thump, thumping against one log 
after another, and this, in the last part of our jour- 
ney, with the bare boards of an open wagon for 
seats once more. It was bad enouo-h in the coach 
with stuffed seats, but it was awful on the hard 
wood. But we got through without an actual up- 
set or breakdown, which is more than a friend of 
mine could say, for the coach in which he was 
■went into so deep a mud-hole at one part of the 
road, that it fairly overturned, throwing the passen- 
gers on the top of one another inside, and leaving 
them no way of exit, when they came to themselves, 
but to crawl out throush the window. It was fine 
weather, however, and the leaves were making the 



24 Oar Log-houee. 

woods ,-»cautif'ul, and tlic birds had begun to flit 
about, so tliat tlie cheerfulness of nature kept us 
froHi tliiiiking much of our troubles. It took us 
three days to go a hundred and fifty miles, and we 
stopped on the way besides for my brother's busi- 
ness, so that the rest of our party had reached our 
new home, by their route, before us. 

The look of the house which was to be our 
dwelling was novel enough to me, with my old 
ideas about houses still in my head. It was built a 
little back from the river, far enough to give room 
for a garden when we had time to make one ; and 
the trees had been cut down from the water's edge 
to some distance behind the house, to make things a 
little more cheery, and also to prevent the risk of 
any of them falling on our establishment in a high 
wind. The house itself had, in fact, been built of 
the logs ])rocured by felling these j)atriarchs of the 
forest, every one of wiiich had, as usual on Cana- 
dian farms, been cut down. My brother had left 
special instructions to spare some of the smaller 
ones, but the " chopper " had understood him ex- 
actly the wrong way, and had cut down those 
pointed out with especial zeal as the objects of his 
greatest dislike. Building the house must have 
been very heavy work, for it was made of great 
logs, the whole thickness of the trees, piled one on 
another, a story and a half high. The neighbors 
had made what they call a " bee " to help to " raise" 
it — that is, they had come without expecting 



How it u'as Built. 25 

wages, but with the understanding that each would 
get back from us, when he wanted it, as many 
days' labor as he had given. They manage a 
difficult business like that of getting up the outside 
of a log house, more easily than one would think. 
First, the logs are cut into the proper lengths for 
the sides and tlie ends ; then they are notched at 
the end to make them keep togetlier ; then an 
equal niunber are put at the four sides to be ready, 
and the first stage is over. The next step is to get 
four laid in the proper positions on the ground, and 
then to get up the rest, layer by layer, on the top 
of each other, till the whole are in their places. It 
is a terrible strain on the men, for there is nothing 
but sheer strength to help them, except that they 
put poles from the top of the last log raised, to the 
ground, and then, with handsj^okes, force another 
up the slope to its destined position. I have known 
many men terribly wrenched by the handspoke of 
some other one slipping and letting the whole 
weight of one end come upon the person next him. 
The logs at the front and back were all fully 
twenty feet long, and some of them eighteen inches 
thick, so that you may judge their weight. After 
the square frame had been thus piled up, w^indows 
and a door were cut with axes, a board at the sides 
of each keeping the ends of the logs in their places. 
You may wonder how this could be done, but 
backwoodsmen are so skilftil with the axe that it 
was done very neatly. The sashes for the windows 



26 Oar Log-house. 

and tlie planking for different })arts of the house 
were got from a saw-mili some distance off, across 
the river, and my brother put in the glass. Of 
course there were a great many chinks between the 
logs, but tliese were filled nji, as well as possible, 
with billets and chips of W(Jod, the whole being 
finally coated and made air-tight with mortar. 
Thus the logs looked as if built up with lime, the 
great black trunks of the trees alternating with the 
grey belts between. The frame of the roof was 
made of round poles, flattened on the top, on which 
boards were put, and these again were covered with 
shingles — a kind of wooden slate made of split 
pine, which answers very well. The angles at the 
ends were filled up with logs fitted to the length, 
and fixed in their })laces by wooden pins driven 
througli the roof-pole at each corner. On the 
whole house there were no nails used at all, except 
on the roof. AVooden pins, and an auger to make 
holes, made every thing fast. Inside, it was an ex- 
tKiiordinary place. The floor was paved with pina 
slabs, the outer planks cut from logs, with the 
round side down, and fixed by wooden pins to 
sleepers made of thin young trees, cut the right 
lengths. Overhead, a number of similar round 
poles, about the thickness of a man's leg, supported 
the floor of the u})per story, which was to be my 
sisters' bedroom. They had planks, however, in- 
stead of boards, in honor of their sex, perhaps. 
They had to climb to this paradise by an extraox'- 



How it was Built. 27 

dinary ladder, made with the never-faihnn; axe and 
au<;er, out of green, round wood. I used always to 
think of Robinson Crusoe gettini; into his fortifica- 
tion, when I saw them going up. 

The chimney was a wonderful affair. It was 
large enough to let you walk up most of the "way, 
and could hold, I can't tell liow many logs, four or 
five feet long, for a fire. It was built of mud, and 
when whitewashed looked very well — at least we 
came to like it ; it was so clean and clieerful in the 
winter time. But we had to pull it down some 
years after, and get one built of brick, as it was 
always getting out of repair. A partition was put 
up across the middle and then divided again, and 
this made two bedrooms for my brothers, and left 
us our solitary room, which was to serve for kitchen, 
dining-room, and drawing-room, the outer door 
opening into it. As to paint, it was out of the 
question, but we had lime for whitewash, and what 
with it and some newspapers my brothers pasted up 
in their bedrooms, and a few pictures we brought 
from home, we thought we were quite stylish. 
There was no house any better, at any rate, in the 
neighborhood, and I suppose we judged by that. 

To keep out the rain and the cold — for rats 
were not known on the river for some years after 
— the whole of the bottom log outside had to be 
banked up after our arrival, the earth being dug up 
all round and thrown against it. The miserable 
shanties in which some settlers manage to live foi 



28 OiO' Lo (/-house. 

a tune arc half Inined by this process, and the very 
wretclied ones built by laborers alongside public 
works while makino;, look more like natural mounds 
than human habitations. I have often thought it 
was a curious thing to see how people, when in the 
same or nearly the same circumstances, fall upon 
similar plans. Some of the Indians in America, 
for instance, used to sink a j)it for a house, and 
build it round with stones, jjutting a roof on the 
walls, which reached only a little al)ove the ground ; 
and antiquarians tell us that the early Scotch did 
the very same. Then Xenophon, long ago, and 
Curzon, in our day, tell us how they were often 
like to fall through the roof of the houses in Anne- 
nia into the middle of the family, huddled up, with 
their oxen, beneath, their dwellings being burrowed 
into the side of a slope, and showing no signs of 
their presence from above. But our house was 
not like this, I am happy to say ; it was on the 
groimd, not in it, and was very warm for Canada, 
when the wind did not come against the door, which 
was a very poor one of inch-thick wood. The 
thickness of the logs kept out the cold wonderfully, 
though that is a very ambiguous word for a Cana- 
dian house, which would need to be made two logs 
thick to be wann -without tremendous fires — at least, 
in the open unsheltered country. The houses made 
of what they call " clap-boards " — that is, of narrow 
boards three-quarters of an inch thick, and lathed 
and plastered inside — are very much colder ; in- 



We (jet Oxen and Cows. 29 

deed, they are, in my opinion, awful, in any part 
of them where a fire is not kept up all winter. 

One thing struck me very nmch, that locks and 
bolts seemed to be thought very useless things. 
Most of the doors had only wooden latches, made 
with an axe or a knife, and fastened at night by a 
wooden pin stuck in above the bar. We got water 
fi-om the rivur close at hand ; a plank run out into 
the stream forming what they called " a wharf," to 
let us get depth enough for our pitchers and pails. 

Besides the house, my brother had got a barn 
built not far from the house — of course a log one 
— on the piece clear of trees. It was about the 
size of the house, but the chinks between the logs 
were not so carefully filled up as in it. The squir- 
rels, indeed, soon found this out, and were con- 
stantly running in and out when we had any grain 
in it. The upper part was to hold our hay, and 
half of the ground floor was for our other crops, the 
cows having the remainder for their habitation. 
We bou(dit a yoke of oxen — that is, two — a few 
days after our arrival, and we began with two 
cows, one of them a pretty fair milker, but the 
other, which had been bought at an extra price, 
was chosen by Robert for its fine red skin, and 
never had given much milk, and never did. The 
oxen, great unwieldy brutes, were pretty well 
broken ; but they were so different from any thing 
we had ever seen for ploughing or drawing a wag- 
on, that Ave were all rather afraid of their horns at 
3* 



80 Elephant and BucJccf/e. 

first, and not very fond of having any thing to do 
with them. We had bought a plough and luirrows, 
and I don't know what else, before coming up, 
and liad brought a great many things besides from 
England, so that we had a pretty fair beginning in 
firm implements. An ox-wagon was very soon 
added to our purchases — a rough affair as could 
be. It was nothing but two })lanks for the bottom 
and one for each side, with short pieces at the ends, 
like the wao-on-stao-e, on the road from Toronto — 
a lonjT box on four wheels, about the heiiiht of a 
cart. The boards were quite loose, to let them rise 
and fall in goino; over the roads when they were 
bad. The oxen were fastened to this machine by 
a yoke, which is a heavy piece of hard wood, with 
a hollow at each end for the back of the necks of 
the oxen, and an iron ring in the middle, on the 
under side, to slip over a pin at the end of the wagon- 
pole, the oxen being secured to it by two thin collars of 
a tough wood called hickory, which were just pieces 
bent to fit their deep necks, tne ends being pushed 
up through two holes in the yokes at each side, and 
fastened by pins at the top. There was no harness 
of any kind, and no reins, a lono; wand servino; to 
guide them. I used at first to think it was a very 
brave thing to put the yoke on or take it otf. 

The names of our two were Elephant and Buck- 
eye, the one, as his name showed, a great creature, 
but as lazy as he was huge ; the other, a much 
nicer beast, somewhat smaller, and a far better 



Unpacking our Stores. 31 

worker. They wore botli rod ami wliite, and so 
patit?nt and quiet, that I used to he asliamed of 
myselt" when 1 i:;<>t angry at them fur their solemn 
slowness and stu|iidity. Had we been judu;es of 
cattle we mi^ht have got mueh better ones lor the 
money they cost us; but my brother Andrew, who 
bought them, had never had any more to do with 
oxen till then than to lielp to eat them at dinner. 
However, we never bought any thing more from the 
man who sold us them. 

Our first concern, when we had got fairly into the 
liouse, was to help to get the fiM'niture and luo-cTaore 
brought from the wharf, two miles off, for we had 
to leave every thing exce])t our bedding there on 
landing. It was a great job to get all into the 
wagon, and then to open it after reaching the 
house. The wharf was a long wooden structure, 
built of logs driven into the shallow bed of the river 
for perhaps a luuulred yards out to the deep water, 
and planked over. There was a broad place at the 
<?nd to turn a wagon, but so much of it was he^iped 
ftp with what they called "cordwood'' — that is, 
o'ood for fuel, cut four feet long — that it took some 
manaiiement to get this done. A man whom we 
fiad hired as servant of all work, at two pounds and 
his board and lodging a month, brought down the 
wairon, and I shall never foro-et how we lauohed 
it his shouting and roaring all the way to the oxen, 
as he walked at their heads with a long beech wand 
ill his hand. He never ceased bellowino; at them 



32 Unpacking our Stares. 

in rougli, angry names, except to vary thorn by or- 
ders, such as Haw ! Gee ! Whoa ! Hup ! which 
were very ridiculous wlicn roared at their ears loud 
enough to have let them know his wishes if they 
had been on the other side of the river. Some- 
how, every one who drives oxen in Canada seems 
to have got into the same plan ; we ourselves, in- 
deed, fell into it more than I would have thought, 
after a time. When we had begun to move the 
luggage, what boxes on boxes had to be lifted ! 
We all lent a hand, but it was hard work. There 
was the piano, and the eight-day clock, in a box 
like a coffin, and carpets, and a huge wardrobe, 
packed full of I don't know what, large enough to 
have done for a travelling show, and boxes of books, 
and crockery, and tables, and a great carpenter's 
chest, not to speak of barrels of oatmeal, and flour, 
and salt, and one of split peas. I think the books 
were the heaviest, except that awful wardrobe and 
chest of diawei*s, which were packed full of some- 
thing. But they paid over and over for all the 
trouble and weight, proving the greatest possible 
blessing. If we had not brought them we would 
have turned half savages, I suppose, for there were 
none to buy nearer than eighty or ninety miles, 
and besides, we would not have had money to buy 
them. We had a whole set of Sir Walter Scott's 
charming stories, which did us a world of good, 
both by helping us to spend the winter evenings 
pleasantly, by the great amount of instruction in 



What some of our Xeighbors brought. 33 

history and antiquarian lore they contained and by 
showing my young sisters, especi:dly, that all the 
world were not like the rude people about us. 
Thev got a taste for elegance and refinement from 
them that kept them ladies in their feelings while 
tliey had only the life of servants. 

When we had got all the things into the house, 
the next thing was to unpack them. A large pier- 
glass, which would have been very useful, but 
rather out of the way in such a house, was discov- 
eretl to be shivered to fragments ; and some crock- 
ery had found the shaking on the journey too much 
for its powers of resistance. That horrid wardrobe, 
which had sprained our backs to get on the wagon, 
would barely go m at the door, and we were very 
much afi-aid at first, that, after bringing it more than 
three thousand miles, we should have to roof it 
over, cut holes in it, and make it a hen-house. It 
was all but too large, like the picture in the " Vi- 
car of Wakefield," wliicli would not go in at any 
door when it was brought home. There was not 
room for neai-ly all our furniture, and one end of 
my sister's loft; was packed like a broker's store- 
room with part of it. My brothers being in Amer- 
ica before, had however saved us from bringing as 
outrageous things as some who afterwards settled 
in the neighborhood. I remember one fumily who 
brought erer so many huge hea^y grates, not know- 
ing that there was no coal in Canada, and that 
th*iy were useless. They would, indeed, be able to 



84 What some of our Neiijlihors brougJd. 

get Ohio coal now, in the larger towns ; but there 
was none then anywhere. The only fuel burned 
all through the country parts, in fireplaces, is, still, 
great thick pieces of split loiis, four feet long. One 
settler from Ireland liad heard that there were a 
great many rattlesnakes in Canada ; and as he had 
been a cavalry volunteer, and had the accoutre- 
ments, he brought a brass helmet, a regulation 
sabre, buckskin breeches, and jack-boots witli him, 
that he might march safely through the jungle 
which he supposed he should find on his route. 
The young clergyman who afterwards came out 
had a different fear. He thought there might be 
no houses for him to sleej) in at nights, and brought 
out a hannnock to swing up under the trees. 
What he thought the people to whom he was to 
preach lived in, I don't know ; perhaj)s he fancied 
we cooked our dinners under the trees, and lived 
without houses, like the Indians. In some coun- 
tries, hammocks are used in travelling through 
uninhabited places, on account of the poisonous 
insects on the o-round and the thickness of the vege- 
tation ; but in Canada such a thing is never heard 
of, houses being always within reach in the parts at 
all settled ; and travellers sleep on the ground when 
beyond the limits of civilization. But to sleep in 
the open air at all makes one such a figure before 
morning with mosquito-bites, that nobody would try 
it a second time, if he could help it. I was onca 
on a journey up Lake Huron, of which I shall 



Hot days. 35 

speak by and by, wliere we had to sleep a night on 
the ground, and, what with ants running over us, 
and with the mosquitoes, we had a most wretched 
time of it. A friend who was with me had his nose 
so bitten that it was thicker above than below, 
and looked exactly as if it had been turned upside 
down in the dark. 

It took us some time to get every thing fairly in 
order, but it was all done after a Avhile. We were 
all in good health ; every thing before us was new ; 
and the weather, though very warm, was often 
delightful in the evening. Through the day it was 
sometimes very oppressive, and we had hot nights 
now and then that were still worse. A sheet 
seemed as heavy as if it had been a pair of blankets, 
and when w^e were sure the door was fiist, we were 
glad to throw even it aside. We always took a 
long rest at noon till the sun got somewhat cooler, 
but the heat was bad enough even in the shade. I 
have known it pretty nearly, if not quite, 100° 
some days in the house. I remember liearing some 
old gentlemen once talking about it, and telling 
each other how they did to escape it: the one 
declared that the coolest part of the house was 
below the bed, and the other, a very stout clergy- 
man, said he found the only spot for study was in 

the cellar. Captain W used to assert that it 

was often as hot in Canada as in the West Indies. 

My sisters never went with so little clothing 
before; and, in deed, it was astonishing how their 



86 Bush Costumes. 

circumference collapsed under the ijiflnence of tlie 
sun. As to us, we tliouo;lit only of coolness. 
Coarse straw hats, with broad brims, costing about 
eightpence apiece, Avith a handkerchief in the crown 
to keep the heat off the head ; a shirt of blue cot- 
ton, wide trowsers of dark printed calico, or, indeed, 
of any thing tliin, and boots, composed our dress. 
But this was elaborate, compared with that adopted 
by a gentleman wlio was leading a batchelor life 
back in the bush some distance from us. A friend 
went to see him one day, and found him frying 
some bacon on a fire below a tree before his door ; 
— a potato-pot hanging by a chain over part of it, 
from a bough — his only dress being a shirt, boots, 
a hat, and a belt round his waist, with a knife in it. 
He had not thought of any one penetrating to his 
wilderness habitation, and laughed as heartily at 
being caught in such a pliglit as my friend did at 
catching him. For my part, 1 thought I should be 
cooler still if I turned up my shirt-sleeves ; but my 
arms got forthwith so tanned and freckled, that even 
yet they are more useful than beautiful. One day 
there chanced to be a torn place on my shoulder, 
which I did not notice on iroino; out. I thouoht, 
after a time, that it was very hot, but took it for 
granted it could not be helped. When I came in 
at dinner, however, I was by no means agreeably 
surprised when my sister Margaret called out to 
me, " George, there's a great blister on your shoul- 
der," which sure enough there was. I took care 
to have always a whole shirt after that. 



Sunstrokes. 37 

We liad hardly been a month on tlie river when 
we heard that a man, fresh from England, who had 
been at work for a neighbor, came into the house 
one afternoon, saying he liad a headache, and died, 
poor fellow, in less than an hour. He had a sun- 
stroke. Sometimes those who are thus seized fall 
down at once in a fit of apoplexy, as was the case 
with Sir Charles Napier in Scinde. I knew a sin- 
oular instance of what the sun sometimes does, in 
the case of a young man, a plumber by trade, who 
had been working on a roof in one of the towns on 
a hot day. He was struck down in an instant, and 
was only saved from death by a fellow-workman. 
For a time he lost his reason, but that gradually 
came back. He lost the power of every part of his 
body, however, except his head, nothing remaining 
alive, you may say, but that. He could move or 
control his eyes, mouth, and neck, but that was all. 
He had been a strong man, but he wasted away 
till his legs and arms were not thicker than a 
child's. Yet he got much better eventually, after 
being bedridden for several years, and when 1 last 
was at his house, could creep about on two crutches. 

I used to pity my sisters, who had to work over 
the fire, cooking for us. It was bad enough for 
girls who had just left a fashionable school in Eng- 
land, and were quite young yet, to do work which 
hitherto they had always had done for them, but to 
have to stoop over a fire in scorching hot weather 
must have been very exhausting. They had to 



38 GoiM^ to inn. 

bake in a large iron pot, srt npoo onbers, and cov- 
«ied w ver the lid : and the dinner had to 

be r? in the kitchen fireplace, nnti! 

wr _ r? °P * contrivance made by lay- 

ing a stout stick on two upright forked ones, driven 
into the gr if a fire ! out- 

side, and k . _ _ m it. > . think 

rf it, what a source of annoyance the cooking on 
the logs in the firej4ace was b^bre we got a crane I 
I remember we once had a large brass panfiil of 
rasobarry jam, nicdy poised, as we thought, on tha 
homing l<^s, and just ready to be lifted off. when, 
lo ! some of the firewood below gave way and down 
it went into the ashes ! Baking was a hard art lo 
kam. What bread we had to eat at first ! We 
used to quote Hood's lines — 

** Who has BM heaid of hoafr-nade bmd — 
This hearj oo^naad of poxtj and kad ! " 

But practice, and a few lessons fi:t>m a neighbor's 
wife, made my asters quite expert at it. We had 
some trouble in getting flour, however, after our 
first stock ran out. The mill was five miles off, 
and, as we had only oxen, it was a tedious job get- 
ting to it and back again. One of my brothers 
used to set off at five in the morning, with his 
break&st over, and was not back again till nine or 
ten at night — that is, after we had wheat of our 
own. It had to be ground while he waited. But 
it was not all lost time, for the shoemaker's was 



Our part of the houseworJc. 39 

near the mill, and we always made the same jour- 
ney do for both. In winter we were sometimes 
badlv oft' when onr flonr ran short. On gettinji; to 
the mill, we, at times, fonnd the wheel frozen hard, 
and that the miller had no Hour of his own to sell. 
I have known us for a fortnight havinn; to use p<> 
tatoes instead of bread, when our neighbors ha[)- 
pened to be as ill provided as we, and could not 
lend us a " baking." 

But bakino; was not all that had to be done in a 
house like ours, with so many men in it. No ser- 
vants could be had ; the girls round, even when 
their fathers had been laborers in P2ngland, were 
quite above going out to service, so that my sisters 
had their hands full. We tried to help them as 
much as we could, bringing in the wood for the 
fire, and carrying all the water from the river. 
Indeed, I used to think it almost a pleasure to fetch 
the water, the river was so beautii'ully clear. 
Never was crystal more transparent. I was wont 
to idle as well as work while thus employed, looking 
at the beautiful stones and pebbles that lay at the 
bottom, far beyond the end of the plank that served 
for our " wharf." 



40 Clearing the Land 



CHAPTER III. 

Clearing the land. — David's bragging, and the end of it. — Burning 
tlie Ijg-heaps. — Our logging bee. — What prejudice can do. — 
Our fences and crops nearly burned. — The woods on fire. — ^ 
Building a snake fence. — "Shingle" pigs give us sore trouble. 
— " Breacliy " horses and cattle. 

n^HE first thing that had to be done with the land 
-■- was to make a farm of it, by cutting down and 
burning as many trees as we could by the first of 
August, to have some room for sowing wheat in 
the first or second week of September. It was now 
well on in June, so that we had very little time. 
However, by hiring two men to chop (we didn't 
board or lodge them) and setting our other hired 
man to help, and with the addition of what my 
brothers Robert and David could do, we expected 
to get a tolerably-sized field ready. Henry and I 
were too young to be of much use ; Henry, the 
elder, being only about fifteen. As to Andrew, he 
could not bear such work, and paid one of the men 
to work for him. Yet both he and we had all 
quite enough to do, in the lighter parts of the busi- 
ness. We had got axes in Toronto, and our man 
fitted them into the crooked handles which they 



Clearing the Land. 



41 



use in Canada. A British axe, witli a long, thin 
blade, only set the men a laughing ; and, indeed, 
it chanced to be a veiy poor affair, for one day the 
whole face of it flew off as Robert was making a 
furious cut with it at a thistle. The Canadian axes 
were shaped like wedges, and it was wonderful to 
see how the men made the chips fly out of a tree 
with them. We got up in the morning with the 
sun, and went out to work till breakfast, the men 
whacking away with all their might ; Nisbet, our 
own man, as we called him, snorting at eveiy stroke, 
as if that helped him, and my two elder brothers 
using their axes as well as they could. We, younger 
hands, had, for our part, to lop ofl' the bi'anches 
when the trees were felled. My brothers soon got to 
be very' fair choppers, and could finish a pretty 
thick tree sooner than you would suppose. But it 
was hard work, for some of the trees were very 
large. One in particular, an elm, which the two men 
attache i at the same time, was so broad across the 
stump, after it was cut down, that Nisbet, who was 
a fair-sized man, when he lay down across it, with 
his head at the edge on one side, did not reach with 
his feet to the other. But, thicker or thinner, all 
came down as we advanced. The plan was to make, 
first, a slanting stroke, and then another, straight 
in, to cut off the chip thus made ; thus gradually 
reaching the middle, leaving a smooth, flat stump 
about three feet high underneath, and a slope in- 
wards above. The one side done, they began the 



42 Clearing the Land. 

same ])rocess witli the other, hacking away chip after 
chip from the butt, till there was not enough left 
to support the mass above. Then came the signal 
of the approaching fall by a loud crack of the thin 
strip that was left uncut ; on hearing which, we 
looked up to see which way the huge shaft was 
coming, and would take to our heels out of its 
reach, if it threatened to fall in oiu' direction. It 
is wonderful, however, how exactly a skilful chop- 
per can determine beforehand how a tree shall come 
down. They sometimes manage, indeed, to aim 
one so fairly at a smaller one, close at hand, as to 
send it, also, to the ground with the blow. Acci- 
dents rarely happen, though, sometimes, a poor man 
runs the wrong way and gets killed. What a noise 
tlie great monarchs of the forest made as th'ey thun- 
dered down ! It was like firing off a great cannon ; 
and right glad we Avere when we had a good many 
such artillery to fire off in a day. But it was often 
dreadfully hot work, and my brothers seemed as if 
they should never drink enough. I used to bring 
them a small pailful of water at a time, and put it 
on the shady side of a stump, covering it over with 
some green thing besides, to keep it cool. The 
cows and oxen seemed to take as much pleasure as 
ourselves in our progress, for no sooner was a tree 
down than they would be among its branches, 
munching off the tender ends as if they were gi'eat 
delicacies in their eyes. It was liarder to keep their, 
out of harm's way than ourselves, and many a time 



DavicVs Bragging, and the end of it. 43 

I was half afraid a tree would be down on nic be- 
fore I got them out of danger. Indeed, we had one 
loss, though only a small one. We had been talk- 
ing over night about cattle being killed, and David, 
who was always a great brag, had told us that " he 
thought it all stupidity ; he didn't know how people 
killed beasts ; he could chop for years and never 
hurt any thing, if there were ever so many cattle 
about." Next morning, however, before breakfast, 
we were all hard at work, and the oxen and the 
cows were busy with the twigs as usual, when a 
fine little calf we had got with one of the cows, 
wandered off in David's direction, just as a tree 
he was at was about to fall ; and, presently, while 
he was all excitement about its going the right way 
for himself, it was down smash on the ])oor calf, 
which was, of coui'se, gone in a moment. Wo 
were sorry for the unfortunate little creature, but 
we could not help laughing amidst all at the face 
David put on. " It was very singular — very. 
He couldn't account for it ; how could he think a 
calf would leave its mother ? " But he said no 
more about the stupidity of people who killed' oxen 
or cows while chopping. 

Working hard every day, it was surprising what 
a piece we soon felled. When we had got as much 
down as we thought we could clear off in time for 
the wheat, we gave the rest a respite for awhile, 
and set to getting rid of those we had already over- 
tlu'own. The straightest of them were selected for 



44 Burning the Logs. 

rails, with wlilcli to fence our intended field ; all 
the others were to be remorselessly burned, stock 
and branch. The first step toward this had been 
taken already, by us lads havinfi; cut off the branches 
from each tree as it was felled, and heaped them 
together in different spots. The trunks of the trees 
had next to be cut into pieces about ten feet long, 
those intended for rails being left somewhat longer. 
I wonder how often the axes rose and fell during 
these weeks. Even my brothers began to be able 
to use them more skilfully, their stumps beginning 
to look smooth and clean cut, instead of being hacked 
in a thousand ridges, as at first. How an English 
carpenter's heart would have grieved over the de- 
struction of so much splendid wood ! The finest 
black walnut, and oak, and maple, was slashed at 
from mornino; to nioht, witli no thouirlit on our 
parts but to get it out of the way as quickly as pos- 
sible. 

Every thing was, at last, ready for the grand fin- 
ishing act, but that required the help of some neigh- 
bors, so that we had to call another " bee." The 
logs had to be rolled together and piled up for burn- 
ing, which would have taken us too long if left to 
ourselves alone. We got a good woman from a fami 
not far off to come in to help my sisters in their 
preparations, for there is always a great deal of 
cooking on these occasions. Salt beef and salt 
pork were to form the centre dishes at the dinner, 
but there was to be a great array of pies and tarts 



Our Logging Bee. 45 

for wliicli we bouglit part of the fruit across tlie river 
and, of the rest, there were pumpkins, wliicli wo 
got from settlers near at hand, and we had phinis 
enough, very good though wihl, from trees in our 
own hush. Tea, with cream to every one's taste, 
formed the ])rincipal heverage, though the most of 
the men wanted to get wliisky besides. But it 
ahnost always leads to drunkenness and fighting, so 
that we did without it. On the day appointed there 
was a very good muster — perhaps twenty men 
altogether. They came immediately after break- 
fast, and we took care to be ready for them. 

Our oxen were brought to the ground with their 
yoke on, and a long chain fastened to the ring in it, 
and two of the men brought each another yoke, so 
that we were noisy enough, and had plenty of ex- 
citement. Two men got it as their task to drive, 
others fixed the chains round the logs, and drew 
them as near each other as possible, in lots of about 
six or seven, and the rest had to lift each lot, one 
log on another, into piles. Henry and I were set 
to gather the loose brush that was left, and throw it 
on the top of the heaps, and thrust the dry rotten 
sticks lying about, into the holes between the logs, 
to help them to burn. It was astonishing to see 
how the oxen walked away with their loads. Stand- 
ing as quiet as if they could not move, except when 
their tails were sent to do duty on some trouble- 
some flies, their faces as solemnly stupid as possible, 
the first shout of the driver made them lean instantly 



46 What Prejudice can do. 

against tlieir yoke in a steady pull, which moved 
almost any log to which they might be chained. 
Horses would have jumped and tugged, and the log 
would have stuck where it was, but the solid strain 
of the oxen, their two heads offen together, and 
their bodies far apart, was irresistible. Otf they 
walked Avith huge cuts of trees, ten feet long, as if 
they had been trifles. It was a wonder how they 
could stand di'affiiino; such heavy weiohts over the 
rough ground, with nothing but the thin wooden 
collar round their necks, against which to press. A 
horse needs a padded collar, but an ox doesn't seem 
to suffer for the want of it. In Nova Scotia, which 
I afterwards visited, and also in Lower Canada, 
oxen are harnessed by the horns, and you are only 
laughed at if you say that it seems cruel. I believe 
if they were yoked by the tail in any country, the 
people who use them in that way would stand up 
for its superiority to any other. Prejudice is a 
wonderful thino; for blindino; men. I have heard 
of a gentleman in the East Indies, who felt for the 
laborers having to carry the earth from some public 
work they were digging, in baskets, on their shoid- 
ders, and got a number of wheelbarrows made for 
them, showing them himself how to use them, and 
how much better they were than their own plan. 
But, next morning, when he came to see how they 
were liking the new system, what was his astonish- 
ment to find that they had turned the barrows also 
into baskets, carrying them on their shoulders, with 
a man at each handle and one at the wheel ! 



Barniny tht. Logs. 47 

Witl' a due rest for dinner and supper, an extra 
time being taken in the middle of the day to escape 
the heat, and with a wonderful consumption of eat- 
ables, including beef and pork, pies, tarts, pickles, 
puddings, cakes, tea, and other things, at each 
meal, we got through the day to the satisfaction of 
all, and had now only to get every thing burned 
off. 

The next day it was slightly wiiuly, which was 
jn our favor, and, still better, the wind was blow- 
ing away from our house and barn. The burning 
was as thorough as we could have desired, but it 
was hot work. We'brought some wood embers 
from the house, and laid tliem on the top of one of 
the logs, on the side next the wind. Then we 
piled chips and sjilinters on them, which were soon 
m flames, and from them there soon was a grand 
blaze of the whole pile. Thus we went on, from 
one to another, until they were all a-fire. But 
the rolling the pieces together as they burned 
away, and the stuffing odd ends into the hollows to 
keep up the flame, was wild work. We ran about 
all day, gathering up every bit of branch or dead 
wood we could find, to get a clean sweep made of 
every thing at once. What we were like when all 
was over, with our black faces and hands, and 
smudged shirts and trowsers, may be easily fancied. 
But, after all, one day was not enough to get rid 
of the wliole. It was days before we got every 
thing burned, the last j)i]e being made up of the 
fragments of all the rest that still remained. 



48 Our Fences and Crops nearly hurned. 

We were fortunate in not having any thing set 

on fire which we wislied to keep from being burnea. 

I have known of many cases where dried leaves 

and pieces of dead Avood, and the thick roots of tlie 

grass, and the coat of vegetable matter always 

found in the soil of the forest, kindled, in spite of 

every effort to prevent it, the fire running along, 

far and near, in the ground, and setting every 

thincT it reached in a blaze. I remember, some 

years after our arrival, Henry was one day going 

some distance, and thought it woidd be as well, 

before he started, to fire some brush heaps that 

were standing in a field that was being cleared, 

quite a distance back, along the side road ; but he 

had hardly done so and set off, than my sisters, 

Margaret and Eliza, avIio Avere alone in the house, 

noticed that the fire had caught the ground, and 

was making for the strip at the side of the road, 

in the direction of the wheat field. It was leaping 

from one thing to another, as the wind carried it, 

and had already put the long fence next it, run- 

nino; alon.o- six or seven acres, in great danger. It 

it had once kindled that, it might have swept on 

toward the house and barn and burned up every 

thing we had; but my sisters were too thorough 

Canadians by this time to let it have its own way. 

Otf the two set to the burning; bank, and began to 

take down the fence rail by rail, and carry each 

across the road, where the fire could not reach them. 

Fortunately there was only stubble in the field. 



The Woods on Fire. 4& 

and the black ploughed earth checked the fire, but 
it kept runuing along the road, breaking out atresh 
after they had thought it was done, and keeping 
them figliting with the rails the whole day, until 
Henry came back at night. A man, who passed 
in a wagon when they were in the worst of their 
trouble, never offered them any help, poor girls, 
but drove on, "guessing" they " had a pretty tight 
job thar." Thanks to their activity there was no 
mischief done except the taking down the fence ; 
but it was a wonder it did not hurt my sisters, as 
the rails are so heavy that men never lift more than 
one at a time, or very seldom. 

Another instance occurred about the same time, 
but on a larger scale. One day on looking east 
from the house, we noticed, about two miles off, 
great clouds of smoke rising from the woods, and 
of course we were instantly off to see what it was. 
We found that ground-fire had got into a piece of 
the forest which we call the " Windfall," a broad 
belt of huge pine trees, which had been thrown 
down by some terrible whirlwind, I don't know 
how long before. Some of them had already 
mouldered in })arts ; others had been charred by 
some former burning, and would have lasted for al- 
most any length of time. They lay on each othel 
in the wildest and thickest confusion, making a 
barricade that would have kept back an amiy of 
giants, and reaching for miles, their great branches 
rising in thousands, black and naked, into the air. 
5 



50 The Woods on Fire. 

The fire luid fairly cauglit tliem, and wa& leaping 
and crackling from limb to limb, and sending up 
volumes of the densest smoke. It was a terribic 
sight to see, and no one could tell how far it woulc 
extend. We were afraid it would spread to the 
forest at each side, and it did catch many of the 
trees next it, fixing on them, sometimes at the 
ground, sometimes up among the branches, while, 
sometimes, the first indication of their being on fire 
would be by the dead part at the very top, nearly 
a bundled feet, I should think, in some cases, from 
the earth, flamino; out like a star. At night the 
sight was iirand in the extreme — the blazins; mass 
of prostrate trees in the Windfall, and at its edges, 
tongues of flame, running up the huge trunks, or 
breaking out here and there on their sides. At 
one place a field came very near the path of the 
conflagration, and it was feared that, though the 
trees did not come close enough to set the fence on 
fire by contact, it might be kindled by the burning 
twigs and inflammable matter that covered the 
ground. A plough was therefore brought, and 
several broad furrows were run outside, that the 
ground-fire might thus be stopped. The plan was 
effectual, and the fence remained untouched ; but 
the fire among the dead ])ines spread day after day, 
till it had burned up every thing before it, to an 
opening in the forest on the other side, where it at 
last died out. 

As soon as the log-piles had been fairly disposed 



Bidlding a Snake-fence. 51 

of, we had, for our next job, to get the rails put up 
round tlie field thus cleared. They were made, 
from the logs that had been saved for the purpose, 
by one of the choppers, whom Ave retained. Fii'st 
of all, he sank his axe into one end of the log, and 
then he put an iron or wooden wedge into the cleft 
he had made, and drove it home with a mallet. 
Then, into the crack made by the first wedge, lie 
put a second, and that made it split so far down 
that only another was generally needed to send it 
in two. The same process Avas gone through with 
the halves, and then with the i)arts, until the whole 
log lay split into })ieces, varying in thickness from 
that of a man's leg, as much again, as they were 
wanted light or heavy. You must remember that 
they were twelve feet long. To make them into 
a fence, you laid a line of them down on the ground 
in a zigzag, like a row of very broad Vs, the end 
of the second resting on that of the first, and so on, 
round the corners, till you came to within the 
length of a rail from where you started. The va- 
cant space was to be the entrance to the field. 
Then five or six more were laid, one on another, 
all round, in the same M-ay — or rather, were put 
up in short, complete portions, till all Avere in their 
places. The ends, at each side of the entrance, 
Avere next lifted and laid on pins put betAveen tAvo 
upright posts at each side. To make a gate, we 
had a second set of posts, Avith pins, close to the 
others, and on these pins rails Avere laid, Avhich 



52 Building a Snake-fence. 

could be taken out wlien wanted, and served very 
well for a gate, but we boys almost always went 
over the fence rather than go round to it. To 
keep all the rails in their places, we had to \n\t up 
what they called " stakes " at each angle — that is, 
we had to take shorter rails, sharpened a little at 
the end, and push one hard into the ground on 
each side of the fence, at every overlapping of the 
ends of the rails, leaning them firmly against the 
top rail, so that they crossed each other above. 
The last thing was to lay a light rail all round 
into the crosses thus made, so as to " lock " them, 
and to make the whole so high that no beast could 
get over it. 

We used to laugh about wliat we were told of 
the piiTs and cattle and horses 2;ettin«j; throuirh and 
over fences ; but we soon found out that it was no 
laughing matter. The pigs were our first enemies, 
for, though we had made the lowest four rails very 
close, as we thought, to keep them out, we found 
we had not quite succeeded. There were some of a 
horrible breed, which they called the " shingle pig," 
as thin as a slate, with long snouts, lone; coarse 
bristles, long legs, and a belly like a greyhound — 
creatures about as different from an English pig as 
can be imagined. They could run like a horse, 
nothing Avould fatten them, and they could squeeze 
themselves sideways through an opening where you 
would have thouglit they could never liaA'^e got in. 
If any hollow in the ground gave them the cl ance 



** Shingle Pigs " give us sore troulle. 53 

of getting Lelow tlic raik, they were sure to find it 
out, and the first thing you •would see, perhaps, 
woiikl be a great gaunt skeleton of a sow, with six 
or eight little ones, rooting away in the heart of 
your field. AVitli old fences they made short work, 
for if there were a piece low and rickety, they would 
fairly push it over with their horrid long noses, and 
enter with a triumphant grunt. Although they 
might have spared our feelings, and left our first 
little field alone, they did not, but never rested 
snuffing round the fence, till they found out a place 
or two below it that had not been closely enough 
staked, through which they squeezed themselves al- 
most every day, until we found out where they 
were and stopped them up. The brutes were so 
cunning that they would never go in before you, 
but would stand looking round the end of the fence 
with their wicked eyes till you were gone, llob- 
ert thought at first he could take revenge on them, 
and whip them out of such annoying habits, and 
whenever the cry was given that " the pigs were 
in," if he were within reach he would rush for the 
whip, and over the fence, to give them the weight 
of it. But they were better at running than he 
was, and, though he cut off the corners to try to 
head them, I don't know, that in all the times he 
ran himself out of breath, he ever did more than 
make them wonder what his intention could be in 
giving them such dreadful chases. We learned to 
be wiser after a time, and by keeping down our ill- 
5* 



54 " Shingle Pigs " give us sore trouUe. 

nature and di-iving them gently, found tliey "would 
make for the j)lace where they got in, and, by going 
out at it, discover it to us. I only once saw a pig 
run down, and it wasn't a " shingle " one. Neither 
Robert, nor any of us — for we were all, by his 
orders, tearing after it in ditferent directions — 
?ould come near it ; but a man we had at the time 
started oft' like an arrow in })ursuit, and very soon 
had it by the hind leg, lifting it by which, the same 
instant, to poor piggy's great astonishment, he sent it 
Avith a great heave over the fence, down on the grass 
outside. It was a small one, of course, else he 
could not have done it. A gentleman some miles 
above us used to be terribly annoyed by all the pigs 
of the neighborhood, as he declared, getting round 
the end of his fence which ran into the river, and 
thought he would cure matters by running it out a 
rail further. But they were not to be beaten, and 
would come to the outside, and swim romid his 
fancied protection. He had to add a third length 
of rail before he stopped them, and it succeeded 
only by the speed of the current being too great for 
them to stem. 

But pigs were not the only nuisance. Horses 
and cattle were sometimes a dreadful trouble. A 
" breachy " horse, or ox, or cow — that is, one 
given to leap fences or break them down — is sure 
to lead all the others in the neighborhood into all 
kinds of mischief. The gentleman who was so 
worried by the nautical powers of the pigs, used to be 



*' Breacliy " Horses and Cattle. 55 

half distracted by a black marc, wliicli ran loose in 
his neighborhood, and led the way into his fields to 
a whole troop of horses, which, but for her, would 
have been harmless enough. If a fence were weak 
she would shove it over ; or if firm, unless it were 
very high indeed, she would leap over it, generally 
knocking off rails enough in doing so to let the oth- 
ers in. She took a fancy to a fine field of Indian 
corn he had a little way from his house, and night 
after night, when he had fiiirly got into bed, he 
would hear her crashing over the fence into it, fol- 
lowed by all the rest. Of course he had to get up 
and dress himself, and then, after running about 
lialf an hour, through dewy corn as high as his 
head, to get them out again, he had to begin in the 
middle of the night to rebuild his broken rampart. 
Only think of this, repeated night after night. I 
used to laugh at his nine or ten feet high fence, 
which I had to climb every time I went alono- the 
river side to see him, but he always put me off by 
saying — "Ah, you haven't a black mare down 
your way." And I am happy to say we had not. 

The cattle were no less accomplished in all forms 
of field-breaking villany than the pigs and horses. 
We had one brute of a cow, sometime after we came, 
that used dc-liberately to hook off the rails with her 
horns, until they were low enough to let her get her 
forelegs over, and then she leaned heavily on the 
rest until they gave way before her, after which she 
would boldly march in. She was an excellent 



56 " Brcaclijj^^ Horses and Cattle. 

milker, so that we did all we could to cure her — 
stickino; a board on her horns, aud hanoinc; anothef 
over her eyes — but she had a decided taste for 
fence-breaking, and we had at last to sentence her 
to death, and take our revenge by eating her up, 
through the winter, after she had been tattered. 



HarrcwinQ. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Wfc begin our preparations for sowing. — Gadfliefi. — Mosquitoes.— 
Harrowing expuriunces. — A huge i\y. — Sandflies. — Tiie poison 
of insects and serpents. — Winter wheat. — The wonders of plant- 
life. — Our first " sport." — Woodpeckers. — " Chitmunks." — 
The blue jay. — The blue bird. — The flight of birds. 

WHEN we luul got our piece of ground all 
cleared, except the great ugly stumps, and 
had got our fence up, our next job was to get every 
thing ready for sowing. First of all the ashes had 
to be scattered, a process that liberally dusted our 
clothes and faces. Then we brought up the oxen, 
and fastened them by their chain to the sharp end 
of a three-cornered harrow, and with this we had to 
scratch the soil, as if just to call its attention to what 
we wished at its hand. It was the most solemnly 
slow work I ever saw, to get over the ground with 
our yoke — solemn to all but the driver, but to him 
the very reverse. The shouting and yelling on his 
part never stopped, as he had to get them round this 
stump and clear of that one. But, if you looked 
only at the oxen, you forgot the noise, in watching 
whether they moved at all or not. Elephant would 
lift his great leg into the air and keep it motionless 
for a time, as if he were thinking whether he should 



r>8 aihijiies. 

ovor si»t it ilowii ;ii!;;uii, aiul, of i-ouiso, Huokoye 
oouKl iu>t <:;i"t oil liisliT lliiin his inntc. 1 tiioil the 
harrowiiii;- ;i lillK-, l>iit I (•oiili-ss 1 dithrt like it. 
\\ o woiv pcrs(,H"iitO(l liy I lie ^adllies, wliieli li<j,liloiI 
on the jUHir dwmi ami ke|)t tlu'in in I'oiistaiit exeiti*- 
lueiit, as, iutleeil, tln'\ Wfll mi^iit. \\ lu're\ er tlu-y 
get a ehauee they jtiiMve the skin on the haek with 
a sliar|) tube, whieli shuts up and draws out like a 
teleseitpe, at the end of their hody, jnotruding jiu 
Oiiii" throuiih it into the iTi'alure attaekeil, and this 
ejnv, when hatelunl, produees a i2;ruh, whieli makes ji 
sore lump iH>und it, and li\es in it till it has attained 
its I'uU si/.e, when it eomes out, h'ts itself tiill to tho 
oround and huirows in it, reappeariui;' alter a time 
as a wiui^ed ^aillly, to torment other I'attle. Tlien 
there were the lonjj; tou^h roots rumiiuij; in I'veiy 
direetion round the stumps, and eatehini;' the teeth 
ot" the harrow every little while, gi\ing the neeks 
»»t' the poor oxen uneommon j<-'rks, ant! noedino; tlio 
harrow to he litK'il i)\ er them eaeh time. There was 
another trouble also, in the shape ol" the mosi|uitoes, 
whieh worried ilriver and oxen alike. They are 
tiny ereatures, but they are ne\erthele>s a great 
nuisanee. In the woods in sinnmer, or near them, 
or, indeed, where\er there is stagnant water, they 
a.v ^ure to sound their " airy trump." The won- 
deri'ul quiekness ot" the vibration of tlieir wing's 
makes a singing noise, whieh j>roelaims at onee the 
presenee of even a single tormentor. They rise in 
clouds i'rom every pool, ami even from the rain- 



vaUr landb iMfft Ekear i '■- '^' 
vaem. m srn*^ in tiiear : 



TUMm «a jpjm^ t» \nA^ T«n aotr Latr^e lAat p^ 
lualot 1' 

skfA, Lb CaoBOKiai dier ai«: 

aad, aaCfl tfeteadinl tra- yMfO, are so - 

a. 6i£easjt emher. «ddkiB^ dvsn : 

iinBM iliiiiM I let <ae tadu; its wsS! <Qir dbe fade «( wsf 
band, jiKt to vaftdk k. Dova it tfmtgs^ ahm/sA too> 
l^bt to be &it, dacn oat ;^Q» ifae laaioet. 
^^"-^-^r fisr«B|ii|»(rt \0jr XtauSaa^ op «■ lL- 

t^dnin ytft^atatm am ihe smka ankE. A 
rick and dbe Esai& vaa^iBre is driwlriing j<»ur 
t'>.»."a- A BDEmite;, and lof *' "^ --'■^irdfesl l^idr 
beCTB to get fialkc, ondL \^ ht h l&wt^ 

tootts liie flMsqiaito Ive: vas vikb Be bs^su aad 
B quite red widi b» soo^jt ♦J y iaiwg tbroa^ bii 



60 Mosquitoes. 

sides. But, though he is done you are not, foi 
some poisonous secretion is instilled into the punc- 
ture, which causes pain, inflammation, and swelling, 

lono- after he is oo"e. We had a little smooth- 
er c5 

haired terrier which seemed to please their taste 
almost as much as we ourselves did. When it got 
into the woods, they woidd settle on the poor brute, 
in spite of all its efforts, till it was almost black with 
them. Horses and oxen get no rest from their at- 
tacks, and between them and the horse-flies I have 
seen the sides of the poor things running with blood. 
" Dey say ebery ting has some use," said a negro 
to me one day ; " I wonder what de mosqueeter's 
good for?" So do I. A clergyman who once 
visited us declared that he thought they and all such 
pests were part of what is meant in the Bible by 
the power of the devil ; Lut Avhether he was right 
or not is beyond me to settle. Perhaps they keep 
off fevers from animals by bleeding them as they do. 
But you know what Socrates said, tliat it was the 
highest attainment of wisdom to feel that we know 
nothing, so that, even if we can't tell why they are 
there, we may be sure, that, if we knew as much 
as we might, we should find that they served some 
wise purpose. At the same time I have often been 
right glad to think that the little nuisances must 
surely have short commons in the unsettled dis- 
tricts, where there are no jjcople nor cattle to tor- 
ment. 

The harrowing was also my first special intro- 



A Huge Fhj. Gl 

duction to tlie horse-flies — great horrid creatures 
that they are. They ftistened on the oxen at every 
part, and stuck the five knives witli which their 
proboscis is armed, deep into the flesh. They are 
as hirge as lioney-bees, so that you may judge how 
nuich they torment their victims. I liave seen them 
make a horse's flanks red witli the blood from tlieir 
bites. They were too numerous to be driven oft' by 
the long tails of either oxen or horses, and, to tell 
the truth, I was half afraid to come near them lest 
they should take a fancy to myself. It is common 
in travelling to put leafy branches of maple or some 
other tree over the horses' ears and head, to protect 
them as far as possible. 

The largest fly I ever saw, lighted on the fence, 
close to me, about this time. AVe had been fright- 
ened by stories of things as big as your thumb, 
that soused down on you before you knew it, but 
I never, before or since, saw such a giant of a fly 
as this fellow. It was just like the house-fly mag- 
nified a great many times, how many I should not 
like to say. I took to my heels in a moment, for 
fear of instant death, and saw no more of it. 
Whether it would have bitten me or not I cannot 
tell, but I was not at all inclined to try the experi- 
ment. 

All this time we have left the oxen pulling away 

at the harrow, but we must leave them a minute or 

two longer, till we get done with all the flies at once. 

There is a little black speck called the sand-fly, 

6 



62 Sand-flies. 

wlilcli manj think even worse than tlie mosqnito. 
It comes in clouds, and is too small to ward o% 
and its bite causes acute pain for hours after. But, 
notwithstanding gadflies, mosquitoes, horse-flies, 
and this last pest, the sand-fly, we were better oft* 
than the South American Indians of whom Hiun- 
boldt speaks, who liave to hide all night three or 
four inches deep in the sand to keep themselves 
from mosquitoes as large as bluebottles ; and our 
cattle had nothing to contend with like such a fly 
as the tzetse, which Dr. Livingstone tells us, is 
found in swarms on the South African rivers, a bito 
of which is certain death to any horse or ox. 

How curious it is, by the way, that any poison 
should be so powerful that the quantity left by the 
bite of a fly should be able to kill a great strong 
horse or an ox ; and how very wonderful it is, 
moreover, that the fly's body should secrete such a 
frightful poison, and that it should carry it about in 
it without itself sufl'ering au}^ harm ! Dr. Buckland, 
of the Life Guards, was once poisoned by some of 
the venom of a cobra di capello, a kind of serpent, 
getting below his nail, into a scratch he had given 
himself with a knife he had used in skinning a rat, 
which the serpent had killed. And yet the serpent 
itself could have whole glands full of it, without 
getting any hurt. But if the cobra were to bite its 
own body it would die at once. The scorpion can 
and does sting itself to death. 

When we had got our held harrowed over twice 






Winter Wlwat. 63 



or tliricc, till every part of it had been well 
scratched up, and the ashes well mixed with tlie 
soil, our next step was to sow it, after which came 
another harrowing, and tlien we had only to Avait 
till the harvest next July, hoping we might be 
favored with a good ci'op. Tliat a blade so slight 
as that of young wheat should be able to stand the 
cold of the Canadian winter has always seemed to 
me a great woTidei-. It grows uj) the first year just 
like grass, and might be mistaken for it even in the 
beginning of the following spring. The snow 
which generally covers it during the long cold sea- 
son is a great protection to it, but it survives even 
when it has been bare for long intervals together, 
though never, I believe, so strong, after such hard- 
ships suffered in its infancy. The snoAv not only 
pi'otects, but, in its melting, nourishes, the young 
plant, so that not to have a good depth of it is a 
double evil. But, snow or not snow, the soil is 
almost always frozen like a rock, and yet the tender 
green blades live through it all, unless some thaw 
during winter expose the roots, and a subsequent 
frost seize them, in which case the phiut dies. 
Large patches in many fields are thus destroyed in 
years when the snow is not deep enough. What 
survives must have suspended its life while the 
earth in which it grows is fi'ozen. Yet, after being 
thus asleep for months — indeed, ijiore than asleep, 
for every process of life must be stopped, the first 
breath of spring brings back its vigor, and it wakes 



64 The Wonders of Plant-life. 

as if it liad been n-rowino; all the time. How won* 
derful are even the common facts of nature ! The 
life of plants I have always tlionght very much so. 
Our life perishes if it be stopped for a very short 
time, but the beautiful i-ol)e of flowers and verdure 
with which the workl is adorned is well-nigh inde- 
structible. Most of you know the story of Pope's 
Aveeping willow : the poet had received a present 
of a basket of figs from the levant, and when open- 
ing it, discovered that part of the twigs of which it 
was made were already budding, fi'ora some mois- 
ture that had reached them, and this led him to 
plant one, which, when it had grown, became the 
stock whence all the Babylonian willows in Eng- 
land have come. Then we are told that seeds 
gathered from beneath the ashes at Pompeii, after 
being buried for eighteen hundred years, have 
grown on being brought once more to the light, 
and it has often been found, that others brought up 
from the bottom of wells, when they were being 
dug, or from beneath accumulations of sand, of 
unknown age, have only to be sown near tlie sur- 
face to commence instantly to grow. It is said 
that wheat, found in the coffins of mummies in 
Egypt, has sprung up fi'eely Avhen sown, but the 
proof of any having done so is thought by others 
insufficient. Yet there is nothing; to make such a 
thing impossible^ and perhaps some future explorer 
like Dr. Layai'd or INIr. Loftus, may come on grains 
older still, in Babylon or Nineveh, and give us 



Woodpeckers. 65 

bread from the wheat that Nebuchadnezzar or Sem- 
irainis used to eat. Indeed, M. Michelet tells us, 
that some seeds found in the inconceivably ancient 
Diluvitd drift readily grew on beinn; sown. 

During -the busy weeks in which we were get- 
ting our first field ready, we boys, though always 
out of doors, were not always at Avork. Henry 
used to bring out his gun with him, to take a shot 
at any thing he could see, and though there were 
not very many creatures round us, yet there were 
more when you locjked for them than you would 
otherwise have thought. The woodpeckers were 
the strangest to us among them all. They would 
come quite near us, running up and down the 
trunks of the trees in every way, as flies run over 
a window-pane. There were three or four kinds : 
one, the rarest, known by being partly yellow ; 
another, by the feathers on its back having a 
strange hairy-like look ; the third was a smaller 
bird, about six inches long, but otherwise like its 
hairy relation ; the fourth, and commonest, was the 
red-headed woodpecker. This one gets its name 
from the beautiful crimson of its head and neck, 
and the contrast of this bright color with the black 
and white of its body and wings, and with its black 
tail, makes it look very pretty. They would light 
on stumps of trees close to iis, running round to the 
other side till we passed, if we came very close, 
and then reappearing the next instant. They kept 
up a constant tap, tap, tapping w^ith their heavy 

6* 



b6 Woodjjeckei's. 

6ills on the bark of any tree on Avliicli they happen 
to alight, running up the trunk, and stop})ing every 
muiute with their tail resting on the bark to sup- 
port them, and hammering as if for the mere love 
of the noise. Every grub or insect they thus dis- 
covered, was, in a moment, cauglit on their tongue, 
which was thrust out for the purpose. Henry shot 
one of them, after missing pretty often, fur we 
were just beginning sliooting as well as every thing 
else, and we brought it to the house to let my sis- 
ters see it, and to have another look at it ourselves. 
Being a bit of an ornithologist, he pointed out to us 
how the toes were four in number — two before 
and two behind — and how they were spread out 
to give the creature as firm hold as possible of the 
sui*face on which it was climbing, and how its tail 
was shaped like a wedge, and the feathers very 
strong, to prop it uj) while at work. Then there 
was the great iieavy head and heavy bill, with the 
long thin neck, putting me in mind of a stone- 
breaker's hammer, with the thin handle and the 
heavy top. But its tongue was, perhaps, the most 
curious part of the whole. There were two long, 
arched, tendon-like things, which reached from the 
tongue round the skull, and passed quite over it 
down to the root of the bill at the nostrils ; and, in- 
side the wide circle thus made, a muscle, fixed at its 
two ends, provided the means of thrusting out the 
tongue with amazinji; swiftness and to a o;rcat 
length, just as you may move forward the top of a 



ChitmimJcs. 67 

fisliiiig-rod in an instant by pulling the line which 
runs from the tip tu the reel. My brother Robert, 
who was of a religious disposition, could not help 
telling us, when we had seen all this, that he 
thought it just another proof of the wonderful wis- 
dom and goodness of God, to see how every thing 
was adapted to its particular end. 

One little creature used to give us a creat deal 
of amusement and plc^asure. It was what Nisbet 
called a chitmunk, the right name of it being the 
grouiul-squirrel. It was a squirrel in every respect, 
except that, instead of the great bushy tail turned 
u]) over the ba-^k, it had a rounded hairy one, 
which was short and straight, and was only twitched 
u]) and down. The little things were to be seen 
every now and then on any old log, that marked 
where a tree had fallen long before. The moment 
we looked at them they would stare at us with their 
great black eyes, and, if we moved, they were into 
some hole in the log, or over the back of it, and 
out of sight in an instant. We all felt kindly dis- 
posed toward them, and never tried to shoot them. 
I suppose they were looking for nuts on the ground, 
as they feed largely on them, and carry off a great 
many, as well as stores of other food, in little cheek- 
pouches which they have, that they may be pro- 
vided for in winter. They do not make their 
houses, like the other squirrels, in holes in the trees, 
but dig burrows in the woods, under logs, or in 
hillocks of earth, or at the roots of the trees, form- 



68 TJie Blue Jay. 

\\\<Z a wiiidino; i)assao:e down to it, and tlicr making 
two or three pantries, as I may call tlien., at the 
sides of their nest, or sitting and slee])ing-room, 
for their extra food. They do not often go up the 
trees, but if they be frightened, and cannot get to 
their holes, they run up the trunks, and get from 
branch to branch with wonderful quickness. Some- 
times we tried to catch one when it would thus go 
up some small, low tree, of which there were num- 
bers on the cdoc of a stream two fields back on ouf 
farm ; but it was always too quick for us, and after 
making sure I had it, and climbing the tree to get 
hold of it, it would be off in some magical way, 
before our eyes, let us do our best. Then, at other 
times, we would try to catch one in an old log, but 
with no better success. Henry would get to the 
one end and I to the other, and make sure it 
couldn't get out. It always did get out, however, 
and all we could do was to admire its beautiful 
shape, with the squirrel head, and a soft brown 
coat which was striped with black, lengthwise, and 
its arch httle tail, which was never still a moment. 
Some of the birds were the greatest beauties you 
could imagine. We would see one fly into the 
woods, all crimson, or seemingly so, and perhaps, 
soon after, another, which was like a living emerald. 
They were small birds — not larger than a thrush 
— and not very numerous; but I cannot trust 
myself to give their true names. The blue jay 
was one of the prettiest of all the feathered folk 



Tlie Blue Jay. 69 

that used to come and look at us. What a briglit, 
quick eye it lias ! what a beautiful blue crest to 
raise or let down, as its pride or curiosity moves it 
or passes away ! how exquisitely its wings are 
capped with blue, and barred with black and white ! 
and its back — could any thing be liner than the 
tint of blue on it? Its very tail would be orna- 
ment enough for anv one bird, with its eleo;ant 
tapering shape, and its feathers barred so charm- 
ingly with black and white. But we got after- 
wards to have a kind of ill-will at the little urchins, 
when we came to have an orchard ; for greater 
thieves than they are, when the fancy takes them, it 
would be hard to imagine. When breeding, they 
generally kept pretty close to the woods ; but in 
September or October they would favor the gardens 
\\\\\\ visits ; and then woe to any fruit within 
riuich ! But yet they ate so many caterpillars at 
times that I suppose we should not have' grudged 
them a cherry feast occasionally, I am sure they 
must be great coxcombs, small though they be, for 
they are not much larger than a thrush, though 
the length of their tail makes them seem larger; 
they carry their heads so pertly, like to show them- 
selves off so well, and are so constantly raising and 
letting down their beautiful crest, as if all the time 
thinking how well they look. John James Audu- 
bon, the ornithologist, got a number of them, of 
both sexes, ali\'e, and tried to carry them over to 
England, to make us a present of the race, if it 



{0 The Blue Bird. 

<veie able to live in our climate ; but the poor tilings 
all sickened and died on the way. 

I must not forget the dear little blue bird, which 
comes all the way from the Far South as early as 
March, to stay the summer with us, not leaving till 
the middle or end of November, when he seems to 
bid a melancholy farewell to his friends, and re- 
turns to his winter retreat. In the sj)ring and 
summer every place is enlivened with his cheerful 
song; but with tlie change of the leaf in October it 
dies away into a single note, as if he too felt sorry 
that the beautiful weather was leaving. 

The blue bird is to America very much, in sum- 
mer, what the robin is to us in England in winter 
— hopping as familiarly, as if it trusted iiyery one, 
about the orchards and the fences. Sometimes it 
builds in a hole in an old apple-tree, for generation 
after generation ; but very often it takes up its 
abode in little houses built specially for it, and fixed 
on a high pole, or on the top of some of the out- 
houses. We were sometimes amused to see its 
kindly Avays while the hen was sitting on the nest. 
The little husband would sit close by her, and 
lighten her cares by singing his sweetest notes over 
and over; and, when he chanced to have found 
some morsel that he thought would please her — 
some insect or other — he would fly with it to her, 
spread his wing over her, and put it into her 
mouth. We used to take it fur granted that it was 
the same pair that built, year after year, in the same 



TJie Flight of Birds. 71 

«po*., but I never heard of any thing being done to 
prove it in any case. In that of other birds, how- 
ever, this attachment to one spot has been very 
clearly shown. I have read somewhere of copper 
riuijs having been fastened roinul the legs of swal- 
lows, which were observed the year after to have 
returned, with this mark on them, to their former 
haunts. How is it that these tiny creatures can 
keep a note in their head of so long a journey as 
they take each autumn, and cross country after 
country, straight to a place thousands of miles dis- 
tant ? A man could not do it without all the helps 
he could get. I lose myself eveiy now and then 
in the streets of any new city I may visit ; and as 
to making my way across a whole kingdom without 
asking, I fear I would make only a very zigzag 
progress. Some courier pigeons, which one of the 
Arctic voyagers took to the Far North, on being 
let loose, made straight for the place to which they 
had been accustomed, in Ayrshire, in an incredibly 
short time. Lithgow, the old traveller, tells us, 
that one of these birds will carry a letter from 
Bagdad to Aleppo, which is thirty day's journey at 
the Eastern rate of travel, in forty-eight hours, so 
that it could have had no hesitation, but nmst have 
flown straight for its distant home. They say that 
when on their long flights, they and other birds, 
such as swallows, soar to a great height, and skim 
round in circles for a time, as if surveying the 
bearings of the land beneath them ; but what eyes 



72 The FlijUt of Birds. 

they must have to see clearly over sue h a landscape 
as must open at so great an elevatiDn! and how 
little, after all, can that help them on a journey of 
thousand of miles ! Moore's beautiful verse speaks 
of the intentness with which the pi<2;eon speeds to 
ts goal, and how it keeps so high up in the air : 

" The dove let loose in eastern skies. 
Returning fondly home, 
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flics 
Where idle warblers roam." 

1 have noticed that all birds, when on long flights, 
seek the upper regions of the air : the ducks and 
swans, that used to pass over us in the spring, on 
their way to their breeding-places in the Arctic re- 
gions, were always so high that they looked like 
strings of moving specks in the sky. They always 
fly in certain order, the geese in single file, arranged 
like a great V, the two sides of it stretching far 
away from each other, but the birds which form the 
figure never losing their respective places. Some 
of the ducks, on the other hand, kept in wedge- 
shaped phalanxes, like the order in which Hannibal 
disposed his troops at the Battle of Cannas. Whether 
they fly so high to see better, or because the air is 
thinner and gives them less resistance, or to be out 
of the reach of danger, or to keep from any temp- 
tation to alight and loiter on their way, it would be 
liari to tell, but witli all the help which their heiglit 
call give them, is has always been a great wonder 



Tlie Fllijht of Birds. 7& 

to me liow tlicy knew tlic road to take. There nius\ 
surely be some senses in such creatures of which we 
do not know, or tliose they have must be very muc\i 
more acute than ours. IIow does a bee find its 
way liome for miles ? And how does the little hum- 
ming-bird — of which I shall speak more hereaftei 
— tlircad its way, in its swift arrowy flight, from 
Canada to tlie far South, and back again, each 
vnar ? I am afraid we must all confess that Ave 
cannot tell. Our knowledge, of which we are 
sometimes sc proud, is a very poor afliiir after all. 



T4 Some Family CJianges. 



CHAPTER V. 

Some family changes. — Aimisements. — Cow-hunting. — Our " sidfti 
line." — The bush. — Adventures with rattlesnakes. — Ganer- 
snakes. — A froj^'s tliglit fur life. — IJlaek squirrels. 

I HAVE talked so long about the farm, and the 
beasts, and birds, that I had almost forgotten 
to speak of some changes which took ])lace in our 
family in the first summer of our settlement. My 
eldest sister had, it seems, found time in Toronto to 
get in love, in spite of having to be mistress of such 
a household, and, of course, nothing could keep her 
past the week fixed for her marriage, which was to 
take place about two months after her getting to 
the River. She must needs, Avhcn the time drew 
near, get back to her beloved, and had to look out 
her share of the furniture, &c., to take with her, or 
rather to send otf before. My eldest brother, An- 
drew, also, had cast many wry looks at the thick 
logs, and at his blistered hands, and had groaned 
through every very hot day, maintaining that there 
would soon be nothing left of him but the bones. 
" Melting moments, girls," he would say to my 
sisters ; " nelting moments, as the sailor said under 
the line I can't stand this ; I shall go back to 



i^ome Family Changes. 75 

England." So he and my eldest sister maae it up 
that he should take her, and such of her chattels as 
were not sent on before, to Toronto, and should 
leave us under the charge of Robert. When the 
day came, we all went down to the wharf with 
them, and, after a rather sorrowful parting, heard 
in due time of the marriage of the one, and, a good 
while afterwards — for there were no steamers in 
those days across the Atlantic — of the safe return 
of the other to England. This was the first break 
up of our household in America ; and it left us for 
a time lonely enough, though there were still so 
many of us together. We didn't care much for 
my sisters leaving, for she would still be within 
reach, but it was quite likely we should never see An- 
drew again. I have always thought it was a very 
touching thing that those who have grown up 
together should be separated, after a few years, per- 
haps never to meet again. My brother Robei't 
made a very tender allusion to this at worship that 
night, and moved us all by praying that we might 
all of us lead such Christian lives, through God's 
grace, that we might meet again in the Great Here- 
after, if not in our earthly pilgrimage. He wound 
up the service by repeating in his very striking way 
— for he recited beautifully — Burns' touching 
words : 

" And when, at last, we reach that coast, 
O'er life's rough ocean driven, 
May we rejoice no wanderer lost ; 
A family in heaven. 



76 Amusements. 

After our wlicat had been sown we lud time to 
take a little leisure, and what with fishing at the 
end of the long wharf by day, and in the canoe, by 
torchlight, in the evenings, or strolling through the 
woods with our guns or rifles, or practising with 
the latter at a rough target made by cutting a broad 
slice off a tree, from which we dug out the bullets 
again to save the lead, the autumn passed very 
pleasantly. Of course it was not all play. There 
was plenty more Ibrest to be cleared, and we 
kept at that pretty steadily, though a half-holiday 
or a whole one did not seem out of the way to vs. 
I, as the youngest, had for my morning and even- 
ino-'s task to go to the woods and brino; home the 
COWS to be milked, and at times, the oxen, when 
we wanted them for some kind of work. The lat- 
ter were left in the woods for days together, when 
we had nothing for them to do, and when we did 
bring them in, we always gave them a little salt at 
the barn-door to try to get them into the habit of 
returning of their own accord. Cattle and horses 
in Canada all need to be often indulged with this lux- 
ury ; the distance from the sea leaving hardly any 
of it in the air, or in the grass and other vegetation. 
It was sometimes a pleasure to go cow-hunting, as 
we called it, but sometimes quite the reverse. I 
vised to set out, with the dogs for company, straight 
up the blazed line at the side of our lot. I mean, 
up a line along which the trees had betm markec' by 
slices cut out of their sides, to show the way tc tha 



Coio-huntlng. 77 

lots at tlie back of ours. It was all open for a little 
way back, for the post road passed up from tlio 
bank of the river along the side of our farm, for five 
or six acres, and then turned at a right angle par- 
allel with the river again, and there was a piece of 
the side line cleared for some distance beyond thy 
turn. After this piece of civilization had been 
passed, however, nature had it all to herself. The 
first twelve or fifteen acres lay fine and high, and 
could almost always be got over easily, but the 
ground dropped down at that distance to the edge 
of a little stream, and rose on tlie other side, to 
stretch away in a dead level, for I know not how 
many miles. The streamlet, which was sometimes 
much swollen after thaws or rains, was crossed by 
a rough sort of bridge formed of the cuts of young 
trees, which rested on stouter supports of the same 
kind, stretching from baid< to bank. One of the 
freshets, however, for a time destroyed this easy 
communication, and left us no way of crossing till 
it was repaired, but either by fording, or by ventur- 
ing over the trunk of a tree, which was felled so as 
to reach across the gap and make an apology for a 
brido-e. It used at first to be a dreadful job to act 
over this primitive pathway, but I got so expeit 
that I could run over it easily and safely enough. 
The dogs, however, generally preferred the water, 
unless Avhen it was deeji. Then there were pieces 
of swampy land, further back, over which a string 
of felled trees, one beyond the other, offered, again, 

7* 



78 Cow-hu7iting. 

the only passage. These were the worst to cross, 
for the wet had generally taken off the bark, and 
they often bent almost into the water with your 
weiglit. One day, when I was making my best 
attempt at getting over one of tlicse safely, an old 
settler on a lot two miles back nuule his appearance 
at the further side. 

" JJad roads, Mr. Brown," said I, accosting him, 
for every one speaks to every one else in such a 
place as that. 

" Yes, Mr. Stanley — bad roads, indeed ; but 
it's nothing to have only to walk out and in. 
What do you think it nuist have been when 1 had 
to brinji; my furniture back on a sleiiih in sunnncr- 
time ? We used wagons on the dry places, and 
then got sleighs for the swamps ; and, Mr. Stan- 
ley, do you know, I'm sure two or three times you 
hardly saw more of the oxen for a minute than just 
the horns. We had all to go throuo;li the w^ater 
ourselves to get them to pull, and even then they 
stuck fast with our load, and we had to take it off 
and carry it on our backs the best way we could. 
You don't know any thing about it, Mr. Stanley. 
I had to carry a chest of drawers on my shoulders 
through all this water, and every bit that we ate 
for a Avhole year, till we got a crop, had to be 
brought from the front, the same way, over these 
logs." 

No doubt he spoke the truth, but, notwithstand- 
ing his gloomy recollections, it used to be grand 



Cow-liuntinfj. 79 

fun to go back, except when I could not find tlie 
cows, )r when they would not let themselves be 
driven home. The dogs would be oft' after a squir- 
rel every little while, though they never could 
catch one, or they would splash into the water 
with a thousand gambols to refresh themselves 
from the heat, and get quit of the mosquitoes. 
Then there can be nothing more beautiful than 
the woods themselves, when the leaves are in all 
their bravery, and the ground is varied by a thou- 
sand forms of verdure, wherever an o[)ening lets in 
the sun. The trees are not broad and umbrageous 
like those in tlie parks of England. Their being 
crowded ton-ether makes them grow far liio;her 
before the branches begin, so that you have great 
high trunks on every side, like innumerable pillars 
in some vast cathedral, and a high open roof of 
green, far over head, the white and blue of the 
sky tilling up the openings in the fretwork of the 
leaves. There is always more or less undergrowth 
to heighten the beauty of the scene, but not 
enough, except in swampy places, to obscure the 
view, which is only closed in the distance by the 
closer and closer gathering of the trees as they re- 
cede. The thickness of some of these monarchs of 
the forest, the fine shape of others, and the vast 
height of nearly all ; the exhaustless charms of the 
great canopy of mingled leaves and branches, and 
sky and cloud above ; the picturesque vistas in the 
openings here and there around ; the endless 



80 The Bush. 

variety of shade and form in the young trees 
springing up at intervals ; tlie flowers in one s})ot, 
the rough fretting of fallen and mouldei-ing trees, 
bright with every tint of fungus, or red with decay, 
or decked with mosses and lichens, in others, and 
the graceful outline of broad beds of fern, contrast- 
ing with the many-colored carpet of leaves — made 
it deliohtful to stroll alono;. The silence that 
reigns heightens the pleasure and adds a calm so- 
lemnity. The stroke of an axe can be heard for 
miles, and so may the sound of a cow-bell, as I 
have sometimes found to my sorrow. But it was 
only when the cows or oxen could be easily got 
that I was disposed to think of the poetry of the 
journey. They always kept together, and I knew 
the sound of our bell at any distance ; but some- 
times I could not, by any listening, catch it, the 
wearer having perhaps lain down to chew the cud, 
and then, what a holloaing and getting up on fallen 
trees to look for them, and wandering till I was 
fairly tired. One of the oxen had for a time the 
honor of bearing the bell, but I found, after a 
while, that he added to my trouble in finding him 
and his friends, by his cunning, and we transferred 
it to one of the cows. The brute had a fixed dis- 
like to going home, and had learned that the tinkle 
of the bell was a sure prelude to his being led off, 
to prevent which, he actually got shrewd enough 
to hold his head, while resting, in so still a way 
that he liiudl) made a sound. 1 have seen him. 



Adventures ivlth HattlesnaJces. 81 

when I had at last hunted liim up, hjuklng side- 
ways at nie Avith his great eyes, afraid tor his hfe 
to stir his head lest the horrid clapper should pro- 
claim his presence. AVhen I did get them they 
were not always willing to be driAen, and would 
set off with their heads and tails up, the oxen ac- 
companying them, the bell making a hideous clan- 
gor, careering away over every impediment, 
straight into the woods, in, perhaps, the very oppo- 
site direction to that in which I wished to lead 
them. Then for a race to head them, round lo«-s, 
over logs, through brush and below it, the dogs 
dashing on ahead, where they thought I was going, 
and looking back every minute, as if to wonder 
what I was about. It was sometimes the work of 
hours to get them home, and sometimes for days 
together we could not find them at all. 

There is little to fear from wild animals in the 
bush in Canada. The deer were too frio-htened to 
trouble us, and, though I have some stories to tell 
about bears and wolves, they were so seldom seen 
that they did not give us nuich alarm. But I was 
always afraid of the rattlesnakes, especially in the 
long grass that grew in some wet places. I never 
saAV but one, however, and that was once, years 
after, when I was riding uj) a narrow road that had 
been cut through the woods. My horse was at a 
walk, when, suddenly, it made a great spring to 
one side, very nearly unseating me, and then stood 
looking at a Ioav bush and trembling in every limb. 



82 Adventures with Rattlesnakes. 

The next moment I heard the liorrible rattle, 
and my horse commenced a set of leaps fiom one 
side to the other, backing all the while, and snort- 
ing wildly. I could not get off, and as little could 
I get my horse turned away, so great was his fear. 
Two men luckily came up just at this time, and at 
once saw the cause of the poor brute's alarm, which 
was soon ended by one of them making a dash at 
the snake with a thick stick, and breaking its neck 
at a blow. Henry told us once that he was chased 
by one which he had disturbed, and I can easily 
credit it, for I have seen smaller snakes get very 
infuriated, and if one was alarmed, as in Henry's 
case, it might readily glide after him for some dis- 
tance. However, it fared badly in the end, for a 
stick ended its days abruptly. I was told one 
story that I believe is true, though ridiculous 
enough. A good man, busy mowing in his field, 
in the summer costume of hat, shirt, and boots, 
found himself, to his horror, face to face with a 
rattlesnake, which, on his instantly throwing down 
his scythe and turning to flee, sprang at his tails 
and fixed its fangs in them inextricably. The 
next spring — the cold body of the snake struck 
ao-ainst his legs, makino; him certain he had been 
bitten. He was a full mile from his house, but 
despair added strength and speed. Away he flew 
— over logs, fences, every thing — the snake dash- 
ing against him with every jump, till he reached 
his home, into which he rushed, shouting, " The 



Adventures ivith Rattlesnakes. 83 

snake, tlie snake ! I'm bitten, I'm bitten ! " Of 
cuui'se they were all alarmed enough, but when 
they came to examine, the terror proved to be the 
whole of the injury suffered, the snake's body hav- 
mg been knocked to pieces on the way, the head, 
only, remahiing fixed in the spot at which it had 
originally sj)rung. David and Henry were one 
day at work in our field, where there were some 
bushes close to a stump near the fence. The two 
were near each other when the former saw a num- 
ber of young rattlesnakes at Henry's side, and, as 
a good joke, for we laughed at the danger, it 
seemed so slight, cried out — "Henry! Henry! 
look at the rattlesnakes ! " at the same time 
mounting the fence to the highest rail to enjoy 
Henry's panic. Cut the young ones were not dis- 
posed to trovible any one, so that he instantly saw 
that he had nothing to fear ; whereas, on looking 
toward David, there was quite enough to turn the 
laugh the other way. " Look at your feet, Da- 
vid ! " followed in an instant, and you may easily 
unagine how quickly the latter was down the outer 
side of the fence, and away to a safe distance, 
when, on doing as he Avas told, he saw the mother 
of the brood poised below him for a spring, which, 
but for Henry, she would have made the next mo- 
ment. 

Pigs have a wonderful power of killing snakes, 
their hungry stomachs tempting them to the attack 
for the sake of eating then- bodies. I don't know 



84 Garter Snakes. 

that they ever set on rattlesnakes, Lut a friend 0!" 
mine saw one with the body of a great black snake, 
the thickness of his wrist, and four or five feet long, 
lying over its back. Monsieur Pig converting the 
whole into pork as fust as he could, by vigorously 
swallowing joint after joint. 

Tl^e garter snake is the only creature of its kind 
which is very common in Canada, and very beauti- 
ful and harmless it is. But it is never seen with- 
out getting killed, unless it beat a very speedy re- 
treat into some log or pile of stones, or other shelter. 
The influence of the story of the Fall in the Garden 
of Eden is fiital to the whole tribe of snakes, against 
every individual of which a merciless crusade is 
waged the moment one is seen. The garter snako 
feeds on frogs and other small creatures, as I 
chanced to see one day when walking up the road. 
In a broad bed of what they call tobacco-weed, a 
chase for life or death was being made between a 
poor frog and one of these snakes. The frog evi- 
dently knew it was in danger, for you never saw 
such leaps as it would take to get away from its 
enemy, falling into the weeds, after each, so as to 
be hidden for a time, if it had only been able to 
keej) so. But the snake would raise itself up on a 
slight coil of its tail, and from that height search 
every place with its bright wicked eyes for its prey, 
and presently glide off toward Avhere the poor frog 
lay panting. Then for another leap, and another 
poising, to scan the field. I don't know li^iw it 



il 



Black Squirrels. 85 

ended, for I liad -watclied tlicin till tlicy were a 
good way off. How tlie snake would ever swallow 
it, if it caught it, is hard to inianlne, for certainly 
it was at least three times as thick as itself. But 
we know that snakes can do wonderful thino-s in 
that way. Why, the corbra-de-capello, at the Zoo- 
logical Gardens, swallowed a great railway rug 
some time ago, and managed to get it up again 
when it found it could make nothino; of it. It is a 
mercy our jaws do not distend in such a fishion, 
for we would look very horrible if we were in the 
habit of swallowino; two larjre loaves at a time, or 
of taking our soup with a spoon a foot broad, which 
would, however, be no worse than a garter-snake 
swallowing a frog whole. It is amazing how fierce 
some of the small snakes are. I have seen one of 
six or eight inches in length dart at a walking-stick 
by which it had been disturbed, with a force so 
great as to be felt in your hand at the further end. 
Homer, in the Iliad, says that Menelaus was as 
brave as a fly, which, though so small, darts once 
and again in a man's face, and will not be driven 
away ; but he might have had an additional com- 
parison for his hero if he had seen a snake no bigger 
than a pencil charging at a thick stick held in a 
man's hand. 

We had very pleasant recreation now and then, 
hunting black squirrels, which were capital eating. 
They are much larger than either the gray or the 
red ones, and taste very much like rabbits, from 



8G Black Squirrels. 

wlilcli, indeed, it would be hard to distinguish them 
when tliey are on the table. Both they and the 
gray squirrel are very common, and are sometimes 
great j)ests to the farmer, making sad havoc with 
his Indian corn while green, and witli the young 
wlieat. In Pennsylvania this at one time came to 
such a [)itcli that a law was passed, offering three- 
pence a-liead for every one destroyed, whicli re- 
sulted, in 1749, in 8,000^. being paid in one year as 
head-money for those killed. Their great numbers 
sometimes develop strange instincts, very different 
from those we might expect. From scarcity of 
food, or some other unknown cause, all the squirrels 
in a large district will at times take it into their heads 
to make a reirular mi<rration to some other rejiion. 
Scattered bodies are said to gather from distant 
]X)ints, and marshal themselves into one great host, 
which then sets out on its chosen march, allowing 
nothing whatever — be it mountain or river — to 
stop them. We ourselves had proof enough that 
nothing in the shape of water, short of a lake, could 
do it. Our neighbors agreed in telling us that, a 
few years Before we came, it had been a bad sum- 
mer for nuts, and that the squirrels of all shades 
had evidently seen the perils of the approaching 
winter, and made up their minds to emigrate to 
more favored lands. Whether they held meetings 
on the subject, and discussed the policy to be pur- 
sued, was not known ; but it is certain that squir- 
reldom at larire decided on a unit'^d course of action. 



Black Squirrels. 87 

Ilavino; come to this determination, tliey gathered, 
it appears, in immense numbers, in the trees at the 
water's edge, where the river was at least a mile 
broad, and had a current of about two miles an 
hour, and, without hesitation, launched off in thou- 
sands on the stream, straight for the other side. 
Whether they all could swim so far, no one, of 
course, could tell ; but vast numbers reached the 
southern shore, and made for the woods, to s'^ek 
there the winter supplies which had been deficient 
in the district they had left. How strange for little 
creatures like them to contrive and carry out an 
organized movement, which looked as complete 
and deliberate as the migration of as many human 
beino;s ! What led them to go to the south rather 
than to the north ? There were no woods in sight on 
the southern side, though there were forests enough 
in the interior. I think we can only come to the 
conclusion, which cannot be easily confuted, that 
the lower creatures have some faculties of which we 
have no idea whatever. 

The black squirrels are very hardy. You may 
see them in the woods, even in the middle of win- 
ter, when their red or gray brethren, and the little 
ground squirrels, are not to be seen. On bright 
days, however, even these more delicate creatures 
venture out, to see what the world is like, after their 
long seclusion in their holes in the trees. They 
must fTather a laro-e amount of food in the summer 
and autumn to be sufficient to keep them through 



88 Black Squirrels. 

the lonfT montlis of cold and fi'ost, and their diligence 
in getting readj^ in time for the season when their 
food is huricd out of their reach, is a^capital exam- 
ple to us. Tliey carry things from great distances 
to tlu'ir nests, if food be rather scarce, or if they 
find any delicacy worth laying up for a treat in the 
winter. When the wheat is ripe they come out in 
great numbers to get a share of the ears, and run 
off with as many as they can manage to steal. 



MM 



i^pearing Fish. 89 



CHAPTER VI. 

Spearing fish. --Ancient Britisli canoes. — Indian ones. — A bargain 
with an Indian. — Henry's cold batli. — Canadian tiuinderstorms. 
— Poor Yorick's death. — Our glorious autumns. — The change 
of the leaf. — Sunsets. — Indian summer. — The fall rains and 
the roads. — The finst snow. — Canadian cold. — A winter land- 
scape. — "Ice-storms." — Snow crjstals. — The minute perfec- 
tion of God's works. — Deer-shooting. — David's misfortune. — 
Useless cruelty. — Shedding of the stag's horns. 

SPEARING fish by moonlight was a great 
amusement with us in the beautiful autumn 
evenings. We had bought a canoe from an Indian 
for eight dollars, I think — that is, about thirty-two 
shillings, and it formed our boat on these occasions. 
Perhaps, however, before speaking of our adventures 
on the waters, I had better describe this new pur- 
chase, and the scene of its transference to our hands, 
which was as curious as itself. It was made out of 
a long cut of a black walnut-tree, w^hich had been 
burned and hollowed to the required depth, breadth, 
and length, and had then been shaped, outside, by 
an axe, to the model proposed. They are gener- 
ally quite light, but ours was, to other canoes, what 
a ship's boat is to a skiff. It must have taken a 
long time to finish, but time is of no value to an 
Indian. Indeed, the longer any thing takes him 



90 Indian Canoes. 

the better, as it gives Iiini at least something to do, 
when, otherwise, he would likely have relapsed into 
total idleness. There is no keel on canoes, but on- 
ly a round bottom, and the ends are sharp and both 
alike. Of course, such a vessel has a natural facil- 
ity at rolling, and needs only the slightest aid on 
your part to turn in the water like a log, so that 
safety depends very nmch on your being steady, 
and not leaning, under any circumstances, to either 
side. In some parts of Canada they are made of 
the tovio-h, liuht bark of the birch tree, which is 
sewed into a long sheet, and stretched over a light 
but strong framework of the desired sliape. Before 
using it, the bark is thoroughly soaked in oil to 
make it waterproof. When finished, such a ca- 
noe is really elegant, rising high into a wide circu- 
lar form at the ends, which are made very sharp to 
cut the water easily. I have seen them beautifully 
finished, with differently colored porcupine quills 
worked into the edges, and fanciful designs at the 
ends. They are so light that one which will hold 
twenty men weighs only a few hundred-weight, and 
can be easily carried by three or four men. Then, 
they are so elastic, that they yield to blows which 
would break a canoe of wood. When thev do get 
an injury, it is amusing to see how easily they are 
mended. You can darn them like a stocking, or 
patch them like a shoe, using wire, however, instead 
of thread, and making all tight by a coating of the 
resinous matter got from the red pine. The inge- 



Ancient British Canoes. 91 

nuity that invented sueh a refinement on the com- 
mon canoe, as is shown in tlie birch-bark one, is 
enough to redeem the character of the Indian from 
the low estimate of his meclianical powers sometimes 
hearth If we wonder at the contrast between such 
vessels at their best and our beautiful boats and 
ships, we must remember that our ancestors could 
boast of nothing better than these Indians make to- 
day. In both Scotland and England, canoes have 
been often found in di'aining a lake, or in excava- 
tions near streams, or near the sea-shore, where 
bogs or other causes have covered the ancient sur- 
face of the ground. One was discovered some years 
since at the foot of the Ocliill hills, many feet under 
a bog, and not very far from it there was found the 
skeleton of a small whale, with the head of a har- 
poon sticking in its backbone. Others, found else- 
where, are preserved in various public and private 
museums. It is striking to think, from such discov- 
eries as these, and from what we know of the boats 
of savage nations generally over the world, how 
nearly men of all ages, when placed in the same po- 
sition, when they are at similar stages of civilization, 
resemble each other in their thoughts and contriv- 
ances to meet the common wants of life. All over 
the world hollow trees have been used for the first 
steps of navigation, and the birch-bark canoe still 
finds a representative in the coracle which the 
Welsh fisherman carries home on his back after 
using It, as his ancestors have done for generation 



92 Indian Canoes. 

after generation, while tlie Greenlander goes to sea 
in his liglit kaiack of seal-skin, as the polished inhab- 
itant of Babylon, as Herodotus tells us, used to Hoat 
his goods down the Great River in rouud boats made 
of skins stretched on a frame of wit-ker-work. 

Instead of oars, the canoe is propelled by paddles, 
which are short oars, with a broader blade. They 
are held in both hands, so that a single person has 
only one to work instead of having one in each 
hand, as with oars, when alone in a boat. An In- 
dian in a canoe, if by himself, sits at the end 
and strikes his ])addle into the water at each side 
alternately, every now and then ])uttiiig it out be- 
hind as a rudder, to turn himself in any particular 
direction. The one we bought was, as I have said, 
far too heavy for comfortable use, and was sold to 
us, I believe, for that reason. It was worse to pad- 
dle it empty than to paddle a proper one full of 
people — at least we came to think so; but we 
knew no better at first than to like it for its mas- 
siveness, never thinking; of the "weio;ht we should 
have to push through the water. The price, how- 
ever, was not very great, though more than would 
have got us a right one, had we known enough. 
The Indian who sold it to us paddled up with it, 
with his wife in it with him, one morning, his dress 
being a dirty printed calico shirt, and a pair of cloth 
leggings ; her's, the never-failing blanket, and leg- 
gings, like those of her husband. They were both 
rather elderly, and by no means attractive in ap- 



Bargain ivith an Indian. 93 

pearance. Robert and the rest of us haj)pened to 
be near tlie fence at tlie river side at the time ; and 
as the Indian came up, he saluted him, as is usual, 
with the Avords, " Bo' jour," a corruption of the 
phrase, " Bon jour," indicatino; curiously the extent 
of the old Frencdi dominion in America — every 
Indian, in any part, undcrstandiniT, or, at least, 
acknowledging it. A grunt on the part of our 
visitor conveyed his return of the courtesy, and 
was presently followed by, " C'noo, sell, good — 
you buy ? " Robert, thus addressed, willingly 
enough entered into temptation, having deter- 
mined, sometime before, to buy one. Like every 
one else in Canada, he seemed naturally to think 
that bad English makes good Indian, and pursued 
the dialogue somewhat as follows: — Robert — 
"Good c'noo?" Indian, with a grunt, " Good," 
making sundry signs with his hands, to show how 
it skimmed the water, and how easily it could be 
steered, both qualities being most sadly deficient, 
as he must have known. Robert — " What for 
you ask ? " Indian, holding up eight fingers, and 
nodding toward them, " dollar," making, immedi- 
ately after, an imitation of smoking, to stand for an 
additional value in tobacco. Robert — " Why you 
sell ? " Indian — No answer, but a grunt, which 
might either hide a wish to decline a difficult ques- 
tion, by pretending ignorance, or any thing else Ave 
like to suppose. Then followed more dumb-show, 
to let us kno\i what a treasure he Avas parting 



94 Spearing Fish. 

with. My brother found it hopeless to get any in- 
formation from him, notliing but grunts and an old 
word or two of Enjxlish followino; a number of 
inquiries. After a time the bargain was struck, 
and having received the money and the tobacco, 
he and his spouse departed, laughing in their 
sleeves, I dare say, at their success in getting a 
canoe well sold which needed two or three men to 
propel it at a reasonable rate. 

It was with this affair we used to go ont on our 
spearing expeditions. A cresset, like those used in 
old times to hold watchmen's lights, and a spear 
with three prongs and a long handle, were all the 
apparatus required. The cresset was fixed in the 
bows of the canoe, and a knot of pitch-j)ine kindled 
in it, threw a brio-ht li<£ht over and throujxh the 
water. Only very still nights Avould do, for if 
there was any rijiple the fish could not be seen. 
When it was perfectly calm we filled our cresset, 
and setting it a fire, one of us would take his place 
near the light, spear in hand, standing ready to use 
it ; and another seated himself at the stern with a 
paddle, and, with the least possible noise, pushed 
off along the shallow edge of the river. The fish 
could be seen a number of feet down, resting on 
the bottom ; but in very deep water the spear could 
not get down quickly enough, while the jiosition of 
the fish itself was changed so raucli by the refrac- 
tion of the light, that it was very hard to hit it 
even if we were not too slow. The stillness of the 



Spearing Fish. 95 

niti^lit — the beauty of tlie sinning skies — the deli- 
cious mildness of the autumnal evenings — the 
sleeping smoothness of the great river — the plaj 
of light and shade from our fire — the white sand 
of the bottom, with the forms of the fish seen on it 
as if through colored crystal — and the excitement 
of darting at them every few yards, made the 
whole dclightfiil. At first we always missed, by 
miscalculating the position of our intended booty ; 
but, after iroinn; out a few times with John Courte- 
nay, a neighbor, and noticing how much he allowed 
for the difference between the real and the appar- 
ent spot for which to aim, we got the secret of the 
art, and gradually managed to become pretty good 
marksmen. There was an island in the river, at 
the upper end of Avhich a long tongue of shallow 
bottom reached uj) the stream, and on this we 
found the best sport : black bass, pike, herrings, 
white-fish, cat-fish, sun-fish, and I don't know what 
else, used to fall victims on this our best preserve. 
I liked almost as well to paddle as to stand in the 
bows to spear the fish, for watching the spearsman 
and looking down at the fish kept you in a flash of 
pleasant excitement all the time. Not a word was 
spoken in the canoe, but I used to think words 
enough. " There's a great sun-fish at the right 
hand, let me steer for it;" and silently the paddle 
would move us toward it, my brother motioning 
me with his hand either to hold back or turn 
more this way, or that, as seemed necessary. " I 



3^ n^oin/* OM BaJtk. 

wojyW if }>♦;*]] ^«ii jjjio ! ** vooM rise in mr moid; 

\:ji next, it would be . of tlte canoe. 

{ ■ ■ ■ - . 



iaw. 1 w^flit 





The 

\iSiTULf 

: not fitjh any more that 

^ - - •■J.t 




:ed frjr h» calamity 
■ ■ nor ftfftild 


i; 

< 

'i 


. ^ . - . iki over hin 

iiumt and tntfrii^ftatUjii. 




.<;n fwh w^'fre |/l<mty, lifting 



t\iem i'rmn tli* watfcT a.\nvtiA avery minute, th^/ugti 
' ' ' '' n herring*, and h<; Jwwl 

r/* aim. In ♦s^/f/u; j/art* 
i4' Canada t^M^re wa« U^i^mr psarne than in our 
V, ' '■, ofttm H*i hir^h 

h ^ 5" Ji (:orru[ition 



Canadian TTiunderstarmt. 97 

of tlie French avoixIs " masque '' :\i il *' longue,** a 
kind of pike \vith a |u*ojec'ting snout, whence its 
name — offering a j>ri/.e of whioh we could not 
lKu>t. It must l»e lu\i\l work to get such pivy out 
of the water, but the harder it is the inoi^e exciting 
is the sport for those whoaiv stivng enough. The 
hulians in some districts Hve to a great extent on 
tlie tish they get in this way. 

I had ahiuxst forgotten to speak of the thunder 
and hghtning which Invke on the suhriness of our 
hottest suniuier woather. Kain is much less fre- 
quent in Canada than in Britain, but when it dvx^ 
come, it ot\en comes in earnest. It usi\l to ivbonnd 
from the ground for inches, and a very few minutes 
were sutHcieut to make small torivi\ts run down 
cvory slope in the givund. When we i\tlerwtu\ls 
had a gtwxlen in front of the house, we fouuvl it w;v5 
almost impossible to keep the soil on it fivm the 
violence of the niins. Indeeil, we pwe up the at- 
tenq>t, on tiuding every thing we trit\l fjul, and 
sowt\l it all with irrass, to the irivat delight of the 
calves, to whom it was made over as a nurseiy. 
Theiv is music, no doubt, in the sound of rain, 
Iwth in the light patter of a summer shower, and 
in the big ihvjvs that dance on the givuud ; but 
there aiv ditVeivnces in this as in other kinds. I 
have stood souietin^es below the giwn bninches iu 
t)ie woods, when a thin cloud was divpping its 
wealth on them, and have Iven charmed by the 
nnuuuir. But the heavy rain that came most 



Si? Ciu*ai*K% XSuEubninrBts. 



-^giifnn:-^ e 


1 - -^ 


iiTnTl^ TSr" 


T^ w^ jaflFe stt Tid 


TClii ~ 


. 


c:hii:;> 


— --■- 


"BTl - 1—- — 


iT *»f*. 


r-1 t ±-ri:a- OB it>e 


Fssi LsiiA figgKm. 7 e. 


Vii^i 


-i:- 


iii::l"^ 


jrr 


_:~ -' 


^j: OB recB- 




— i 


B be 


r SOL i >:■ 


cg: oc it 


-r 


^; 




Yc>^ a.d I kaonr vlxax ttiamkr k tS acioad k nred 


T>:ai trs- 


- / -S., 


'B"}!;' : " ~ 


&S, 


>:■ '-: . 


-iw 


tJua^^ ail.. 


to JBOBp !■ 

^ mas qaaet. 




pour Ucwie, dnraogii bk ter- 
^ vben it bad ooMe oa. 



the wirviow? and tk»ors bappenii^ to be dosied, he 
r^ied into the woi:^ in hk mortal fear, and com 
las on Ae sJianty <4" a 5<etder, flew " -^^jeted 

ziimself b^w his accustomed sh. : e bed. 

TW owner of dbe hoosie, not knowing the ^cts o^ 
ibe caiie, natorklhr enough took it : _ -i that 

tie do^ was mad. and forthwith j--. .... . .i to hk 

rr«ables br shoocii^ him. It was a great grief to 
to ki?e so kind and infedSlk^ait a a^Btturte;, bnt 

wr : oold haidiv blame his ' 

There is a wonderlliil six - in die 

lukness and solemn hn^ of natwe that gv>es befere 
cc^ '^ - nfcs as n -^ of all 

-"-tt:_- . : ieaves : ihoo^ 

:aefv is not a breath of wind ; the birds either hide 
in die fei^si, or Sj law in tarrDr ; the waters look 
ciack, and are raffled over aD their snr&ce. It 
seen^ as if all thii^ armnd knew of dbe impend- 
::^ tenvic?. I nerer w» mar? awed in mv fife, I 
laink, than at the sight of the heaTens and the 
jcnM^onTing soffMOkse of nature one aftisnoon, in 
T^ first sommer we were on die river. The 
temped had not barst^ but it lav in the bosom of 
poctentoos doods, of a stzange, mKaithhr look and 
color, that came down to within a vexy short dk- 
ranee of the earth. Not a sound broke the awAil 
sileMre : die wind, as wdl as all things else, was still, 
and rec the SDorm-doods moved steadil v to the south, 
ippar^ith' onhr a v^y ^w vards hi^har than the 
treesw The darkness was like that of an ec^pee. 



100 Canadian Tliunderstorms. 

and no one could have said at what instant tlio 
prison of the hghtnings and thunders would rend 
above him and envelope him in its horrors. I 
jould not, dared not stir, but stood where I was till 
«he great gray masses, through which it seemed as 
if I could see the shinuner of the aerial fires, had 
sailed slowly over to the other side of the river, 
and the light, in }>art, returned. 

The lightning used to leave curious traces of its 
visits in its effects on isolated trees all round. 
There was a huge j)ine in a field at the back of the 
house that had been its sport more than once. The 
great toj) had been torn off, and the trunk was split 
into ribbons, which hunf; far down the sides. 
Many others, which I liave seen in different parts, 
had been ploughed into deep furrows almost from 
top to bottom. The telegraph-posts, since they 
hav>5 been erected, have been an especial attraction. 
I have seen fully a dozen of them in one long stretch 
split up, and torn spirally, through their whole 
length, by a flash which had struck the wire and 
run along it. That more peoj^le are not killed by 
it seems wonderful ; yet there are many accidents 
of this kind, after all. In the first or second year 
of our settlement, a widow lady, livino- a few miles 
up tbe river, was found dead in her bed, killed in a 
storm, and we aftcnvards heard of several others 
perishing in the same way. 

Hail often accompanies thunder and lightning in 
Canada, and the pieces are sometimes (fa size that 



Our Glorious ^'^ctumns. 101 

lets one syni])atliize with the Egyptians when Mo- 
ses sent down a similar visitation on fheni. I re- 
member readino; of a hailstorm on the B^<ick Sea in 
the midst of hot weather, the pieces in whiv^h were, 
some of them, a pound weiglit, <-lu'eatening- de."^th to 
any one they might strike. I njver saw them such 
a size in Canada, but used to think that it was bad 
enough to have them an inch and a half long. They 
must be formed by a cloud being whirled ap, by 
some current in the air, to such a height as fi'cezes 
its contents, even in the heat of summer. 

The w^eather in the fall was deligli^ful — better, 
I think, than in any other season of the yiar. Get- 
tino- its name from the beoinnino; of the f.xll of tl'« 
leaves, this season lasts on till winter pushes vt asidr 
Day after day was bright and almost cloudlet's, aii<' 
the heat had passed into a balmy mildness, whici 
made the very feeling of being alive a pleasur* 
Every thing combined to make the landscape bear 
tiful. The great resplendent river, flowing so soft 
ly it seemed scarce to move — its bosom a broad 
sheet of molten silver, on which clouds, and sky, 
and white sails, and even the further banks, witl 
the houses, and fields, and Avoods, far back from 
the water, Avere painted as in a magic mirror — w^as 
? beautiful sight, of which we never tired ; like the 
SAvans in St. Mary's Loch, Avhich, Wordsworth says, 
" float double, sAvan and shadoAV," Ave had ships in 
as well as on the Avaters ; ai-d not a branch, nor 
twig, nor leaf of the great trees, nor of the bushes, 

9 * 



102 Our Glorious Autumns. 

nor a touch in the oj)cn landscape, was wanting 
as we paddled along the shores, or looked across. 

And wluit shall I say of the sunsets? Milton 
says — 

" Now i';iinc titill evening on, and tA\ilij:lit gruy 
Had ill lici' sober livery till things chid." 

but this would not do for some of those autumn days. 
The yellow light would fill earth, and air, and sky. 
The trees, seen between you and the setting sun, 
were shining amber, in trunk, and bi'anch, and leaf; 
and the windows of neirjlibors' houses were Haming 
gold ; while here and there branches on which the 
sun shone at a diti'erent angle seemed light itself; 
and in the distance the smoke rose purple, till, while 
you gazed, the whole vision faded, and faded, through 
every shade of green and violet, into the dark-blue 
of the stars. 

By the beginning of September the first frosts liad 
touched the ti'ees, and the change of color in the 
leaves at once set in. It is only when this has taken 
place that the forests put on their greatest beauty ; 
though, indeed, a feeling of sadness was always asso- 
ciated with these autumnal splendors, connected as 
they are, like the last colors of the dolphin, with 
thovights of decay and death. With each day, after 
the change had commenced, the beauty increased. 
Each kind of tree — the oak, the elm, the beech, the 
ash, the birch, the walnut, and, above all, the ma- 
ple — had its own hue, and every hue was love'y. 



mm 



The Change of the Leaf. 103 

Then tlicre were the solemn pines, an tamaracks, 
and cedars, setting off the charms of their gayer 
bretliren by their sober green, which at a distance 
looked almost black. The maple-leaf, the first to 
color, remained, throughout, the most beautiful, in 
its iiolden yellow and crimson. No wonder it has 
become to Canada what the shamrock is to Ireland, 
or the rose and the thistle, to England and Scotland. 
The woods look finest, I think, when the tints are 
just beginning, and green, yellow, and scarlet are 
mingled in every shade of transition. But what 
sheets of golden flame they became after a time ! 
Then every leaf had something of its own in which 
it differed from all others. Yonder, the colors 
blended together into pink of the brightest tint ; then 
came a dash of lilac and blue, and, away by itself, 
a clump rose, like an islet, of glowing red gold. 
Lofty trees, and humble undergrowth, and climb- 
ing creepers — all alike owned the magic influence, 
and decked the landscape with every tint that can 
be borrowed from the light, till the whole looked 
like the scenery of some fairy talc. 

The sunsets, as the year deepened into winter, 
grew, I thought, if possible, more and more glori- 
ous. The light sank behind mountains of gold and 
purple, and shot up its splendors, from beyond, on 
every bar and fleck of cloud, to the zenith. Then 
came the slow advance of night, with the day re- 
treatincT from before it to the glorious o-ates of the 
west, at first in a flusli of crimson, then in a flood 



104 Indian Summer. 

of amber, till at last, with a lingering farewell, it 
left us in paler and paler green. I have seen 
every tree turned into gold as I looked across the 
river, as the evening fell. Milnian speaks, in one 
of his poems, of the " golden air of heaven." Such 
sights as these sunsets make the image a reality, 
and almost involuntarily lead one, as he gazes on 
the wide p;lory that rests on all thino;s, to think 
how beautiful the better world must be if this one 
be so lovely. 

The Indian summer came with the end of Octo- 
ber and lasted about ten days, a good deal of rain 
having fallen just before. While it lasted, it was 
deliciously mild, like the finest April weather in 
England. A soft mist hung over the whole pano- 
rama round us, mellowing every thing to a peculiar 
spiritual beauty. The sun rose, and travelled 
through the day, and set, behind a veil of haze, 
through which it showed like a great crate of glow- 
ing embers. As it rose, the haze reddened higher 
and higher up the sky, till, at noon, the heavens 
were like the hollow of a vast half-transparent rose, 
shutting out the blue. It was like the dreamy 
days of Thomson's " Castle of Indolence," where 
every thing invited to repose. You could look at 
the sun at any hour, and yet the view around was 
not destroyed, but rather made more lovely. 
What the cause of this phenomenon may be I have 
never been able to find out. One writer suggests 
one thing, and another something else ; but it 



riHiiiifiHHiritaMMHitaH*HiBMIiaiMi 



Indian Summer. 105 

seems as if nobody knew the true reason of it. If 
I might venture a guess, I would say that perhaps 
it arises from the condensation of the vapors of the 
earth by the first frosts, while the summer and au- 
tumn heats are yet great enough in the soil to cause 
them to rise in abmidance. 

Both before and after the ludian summer the 
first unmistakable heralds of winter visited us, in 
the shape of morning hoar-frost, which melted 
away as the day advanced. It was wonderfully 
beautiflil to look at it, in its effects on the infinitely- 
varied colors of the leaves which still clung to the 
trees. Its silver dust, powdered over the golden 
yellow of some, and the bright-red, or dark-brown, 
or green of otliers, the minutest outline of each 
preserved, looked charming in the extreme. Then, 
not only the leaves, but the trunks, and branches, 
and lightest sprays, were crusted with the same 
snowy film, till, as far as the eye could reach, it 
seemed as if some magical transformation had hap- 
pened in the night, and a mockery of nature had 
been moulded in white. But what shall I say of 
the scene when the sun came up in the east, to 
have his look at it as well as we ? What rainbow 
tints of eA'ery possible shade ! what diamond spark- 
ling of millions of ciystals at once ! It was like 
the gardens of Aladdin, with the trees bending 
under their wealth of rubies, and sapphires, and all 
things precious. But the spectacle was as short 
lived as it was lovely. By noon, the last trace was 
gone. 



ion 



7'//r h'lill liitinft and the Roadg. 



I 



'I lie :iiiliiinii;il laiiii :ii<' oC nfcut V.'iliic to lli<i 
fiiriiK'r.s :iii<l lli(! ('(Miiitry ^!,i!ii«r;illy, l<y lllliiij^ llio 
wclirt ami iial.uial r('>i(!rv<»irH, ko a.s 1<» h<'ciii-(i a \)Utt\- 
lil'iil Mi|)|tly ofwalcr i'or winter, ami lltiis tlicy wcro 

Wclcoini' flMMIL!!! <»ll lIllS ^M'OIIII'i li» IIIU t, lllOII'ill 

we, willi lilt' I'ivtT at liaiiil, cmild liavr very well 
(|i)Mi>, williuiil. tliciii'. Hut, ill llicir cHrctK on tli(3 
IdMils, llwy wt'l'c a caiifsi! of jji;il< T In all alike I'iX- 
(•('|)t, mar towns, tlu) roaih all lliroii;;li ('aiiadu 
wi'i'i', ill lliosi* (jays, vvliat iiio^l fif tlifiii arc, t-vcii 
yi't, only mini ; aii'l liiii<<' yon may jn<l;j!;(! lin-ir 
Htiiltt alter loii;^-contiiiiu!(| Irojtical raiiiH. All I 
liiivci nai(l of our Joiirm'y to llir river in llic early 
Muinnier, nii^^lit l»e i'e|ieale(I ol' caeji relnrninn' Call, 
Men eaiiie III till' liniisc! oviiiy (lay or two to lM»rio\v 
an axe or an an;4fr, to ('xtt'm)tori/e some re|iair oi' 
tli<'ir hrolveii-ilown \vat;'ons or velneles. One |)it(liy 
nifilil, I eanie iijion two who were intensely laisy, 
l»y tlie linlil of ii hiiiiciii, nieinlin;j!; a waeou, witli 
I.Ik! Iii'l|) ol' a Kaw, an aii;j,t'r, an axe, ami a rojie. 
Of (uiiii'.se, I stopped to oH'nr assistance, lui! I had 
(!()ni(t only in time l.o |)(> too late, and was answered 
lliat my iu-lp was not wanted. " All's ri^lit — ■ 
tliere's no use making' a Cuss — .Ilin, taki' Itack tliein 
tliin;i;s where ydii >/n\ them, and let's e*) a-head." 
As to thanks Cor my oiler, it would have heeii ex- 
li'aviieant to expect them. They had colthled their 
vehicle, and, mi .Inn's return, were oil' into the 
darkness as coolly as iC nothiiie- had happened. 
'I'lic dam-t'rs oC the mails are a re;Li;Mlar part of the 



i 



Thr, F,dl Ua'uLH and ihr l!<,adn. 107 

calculatioris of* tin; Ici'-l.-coimiiy Ciiii!i«li!irn, to cri- 
(•«iinl< r wliicli tlicy cjury iin ax<', :i wr<ii<|i, ;iii<l :i 
j)ic<;e ()\' n»|»<', \v)ii<li ;ir(; ^ciwially i'\\'>n'^\\ lor lliu 
rii'lc w!i(M'l\vi'i;jlif. Mir;_'<Ty i<'(|iiiri:'l. It in !imiihiii<^ 
to hear vvilli wliat ]><'(r<'"|. in(|itlli<ii<c tlicy treat 
rnisa<lv«;Mtiir<!H vvliirli wouhl totally (liseoiircrt an 
old coiiiitiyman. 1 Vi'MwuAntv a iiiaii wliom 1 jiift 
p,at<:liiii^ uj> liis li<^lit vva;^on — wliieli is tlie iiaiiuj 
for a rour-wli<!<.'l<;'l \(\^ — Hotting ino luii^liiii^' at liin 
a(;coiiiit of liis tfimiipliH over all the aeeide-nts of 
trave-l. " 1 never wan Hto|)|M'<l y<'t," he w<iiit on to 
aHsnre nw;. "Oii'c I was in my hn;/;/y, an<l the 
tire of one, (A the whe'els eani*; od' without my no- 
tiein^ ; 1 ran haek Kom<! miles to try if I conM ^iit 
it, hnt 1 eonhin't (iii'l it. I'/ni I ^n<:HS I never Hay 
(li(j, so I took a rail and htnek it in helow the lanKi 
f;orner, and I tr;|| yon we made* the dnst fly ! " 

A little hriek elinre-h had lj(;<;n omit ahoiit two 
rnil<;H from us, Home time hef'ore we eame to the 
river, hut tiie mud was a sure hinderanee to such of* 
the congregation as could not eomo hy water. 
Any attempt at wcck-ni^ht nieetitijj^s (jf any kind 
wxs, of course, out of tlie question. We were jjret- 
ty nearly close prisoners till the frost shoidd come 
to reli<;ve us. 

As in many other cases, liowever, this first stejj 
towards cure was almost worse than the disease. 
Tlni frost often came in hitter fierceness for some 
time hef'ore any snow fell, and then, who shall sin^ 
in Had enouj^h strainn the state of tlie roadi'/ 



108 The Fall Bains and the Roads. 

Imagine mile after mile of mud, first poached inU 
a long honeycomb by the oxen and horses, and cut 
into longitudinal holes by the wheels, then frozen, 
in this state, in a night, into stone. I once had to 
ride nearly sixty miles over such a set of pitfalls. 
My brother Frederic was witli me, but he had 
slip[)ed in the stable and s])rained his shoulder, so 
that I had almost to lift him into the saddle. He 
came with me to lead back my horse at the sixty 
miles' end, where the roads permitted the stage to 
run for my further journey. We were two days 
on the way, and such days. The thermometer 
was below zero, our breath froze on our eyelashes 
every minute, and the horses had long icicles at 
their noses, and yet we could only stumble on at a 
slow walk, the horses picking their steps with the 
greatest dilHculty, and every now and then coming 
down almost on their knees. Sometimes we got 
so cold we had to get off and walk with the bridles 
on our arms ; and then there was the orettino; 
Frederic mounted asain. I thought we should 
never get to the end of the first day's ride. It got 
dark long before Ave reached it, and we were afraid 
to sit any longer on the horses, so that we finished 
it by groping in the pitchy darkness, as well as we 
could, for some miles. 

The first snow fell in November, and lay, that 
year, from that time until April. The climate 
has become much milder since, from the great 
extent of the clearings, I suppose, so that snow 



TJie First Snow. 109 

does not lie, now-a-days, as it did then, and does 
not begin for nearly a month later. I liave often 
heard Canadians deploring the ehange in this re- 
spect, as, indeed, they well may in the rougher 
parts of the country, for the winter snow, by filling 
up the holes in the roads and freezing the wet 
places, as well as by its smooth surface, enables 
them to bring heavy loads of all kinds to market, 
from places which are wholly shut up at otiier 
seasons, if they had the leisure to employ in that 
way, at any other, which they have not. The 
snow is, consequently, as welcome in Canada as the 
summer is elsewhere, and a deficiency of it is a 
heavy loss. When we first settled, the quantity 
that fell was often very great, and as none melted, 
except during the periodical thaw in January, the 
accumulation became quite formidable by spring. 
It was never so bad, however, by any means, as at 
Quebec, where the houses have flights of steps up 
to the door to let folks always get in and out 
through the winter, the doors being put at high 
snow-mark, if I may so speak. I have sometimes 
seen thestumjjs quite hidden and the fences dwarfed 
to a very Lilliputain height ; but, of late years, 
there have been some winters when there has hardly 
been enough to cover the ground, and the wheat 
has in many parts been killed, to a large extent, 
by the frost and thaws, which it cannot stand when 
uncovered. People in Britain often make great 
mistakes about the appearance of Canada in winter, 

10 



110 Canada in Winter. 

thinking, as I remember we did, that we shoul(^ 
liave almost to get down to our houses tlirough the 
snow for months together. The wliole dej)th may 
often, now-a-days, in the open country, be meas- 
ured by inclies, though it still kee})S up its old 
glory in the bush, and lies for months together, 
instead of melting off in a few days, as it very fre- 
quently does round the towns and cities. I re- 
member an account of the Canadian climate given 
by a very Avitty man, now dead. Dr. Dunlop, of 
Lake Huron, as the report sent home respecting it 
by an Englishman to his friends, whom he informed, 
that for four months in the year you were up to 
the neck in mud ; for four more, you were either 
burned up by the heat or stung to death by mos- 
quitoes, and, for the other four, if you managed to 
get your nose above the snow it was only to liave 
it bitten off by the frost. All the evils thus ar- 
rayed are bad enough, but the writer's humor 
joined with his imagination in makino; an outrajje- 
ous caricature when he spoke thus. A Frenchman, 
writing about England, would perhaps say as much 
against its climate, and perhaps with a nearer ap- 
proach to truth, I remember travelling with one 
in the railway from Wolverhamjiton to London, on 
a very bad day in Avinter, whose opinion of the 
English cKmate was, " cleemate, it's no cleemate — 
it's only yellow fogue." Robert Southey, as true 
an Englishman as ever lived, in the delightful letters 
published in his life, constantly abuses it in a most 



Climate in America. Ill 

extraordinary way, and I suppose there are others 
who abuse that of every other country in which 
they chance to live. We can have nothing just as 
we would like it, and must always set the bright 
side over against the dark. For my part, I think 
that, though Canada has its charms at some seasons, 
and redeeming points in all, there is no place like 
dear Old England, in spite of its fogs and drizzle, 
and the colds they bring in their train. 

The question often rises respecting the climate 
in America, since it has grown so much milder in 
comparatively few years, whether it will ever grow 
any thing like our own in its range of cold and 
heat. Tiiat many countries have changed greatly 
within historical periods is certain. The climate 
of England, in the days of the Norman conquest, 
is thought by many to have been like that of 
Canada now. Horace hints at ice and snow being 
no strangers at Rome in the time of Augustus. 
Ca3sar led his army over the frozen Rhone ; and, 
as to Germany, the description of its climate in 
Tacitus is fit to make one shiver. But we have, 
unfortunately, an opportunity afforded us by the 
case of New England, of seeing that two hundred 
years' occupation of an American province, though 
it may lessen the quantity of snow, has no effect in 
tempering the severity of the cold in winter, or 
abating the heat in summer. Connecticut and 
Massachusetts are as cold as Canada, if not colder, 
and yet they are long-settled countries. The great 



112 



A WuiiA^r JjOfi/JUcape. 



I 



\cy o fui'iwiui U) i]Ki ri'/rtli forbids the liojx,- of Cana'la 
«!vyr l>';If»j^, in any Ktrict »<;n'*c of tli<; t'.-nn, tcrnper- 
aUj. Kv<;n in iIkj open prairien of Wifeconnin and 
Iowa, the blanU that Hwccp from the awful Arctic 
<\i',nnriM art: Umm f^ryond the conception of thoi*e 
who lU'Vcr i'cU theiM. it in the fa-f.-tof liritain l>eing 
;ui ihland that han uaohi the chanj^e in its cd'^i, the 
wiii'l tli;ii MowK over the h'-a hein;^ always niuf-h 
cool'-r in hnniiner and wanner in winter llian thai 
whlrli hh^wH over lanrl. 

J have Hpoken of the beautiful effect of tlie Iioar- 
fro-.t. on the fon-Mt ; that of the snow is equally 
f.tiikin;.';. If. in won'leifiil how unu-ji jnana;^(!S to 
^rc.i itHciC lieiiped iij) on llic hrojid hranches r^f pines 
!Ui<l 'edarH, and even on the })are limbs and twigs 
of other 1.)'('eH, ruiikin;^ the l!inflsr;ij)e look most 
;im;i/,in;.';ly vvinlry. lint I don't think any one in 
( !;ui:mI:i ever hi:iid of ;-,U'|i ;i (jii;intity lod/^ing on 
tli(;ni .'iH to ni;d'.e hucji :mi ocrnrrfiice ,'ts jMrs, Mary 
iSonK'rvillf 'inotcs fVoni some fr;iv(!llcr in hf-r "J'liyH- 
ic;d ( «i'OM|;i|,hy,'' \vhf|<' sIk- tells ns tli;it the wci;^lit 
ol it on the. Iifoiid IromU of the ])ine-tre<!.s is so great, 
lli;it, when tin- wind rises and sways them to and 
do, tliey ol'ien tumlili' against eaeli other with such 
f'onu! as to ovei-ihrow great, numbers, over large tracts 
of count ly. Sneh " ie(!-storms," us hIu; calls thcun, 
I never he.iril oC, nor did I ever meet with any one 
who di(|. Indied, I i:illi<'r llilnl'; tlii'ni Impossihie, 
from the mere I'act thai, ihon^ii llie (oree with wliielr 
the llrsl. tree struck llu' second mi^hl he. on-. ugh to 



^ Lib-isU/rmi.^^ 113 

throw xi down, that of the second would be much 
yn:a!lii^iT on a thi: 

cea.^ alrnoit al -.. , - 

wide. It must be some curious and incorrect ver- 
sion of the terriUe tornadoes of summer which slic 
has quoted. 

The snow itself used to ^re me cmstant pleas- 
ure in looking at it minutely. The Ix 
yoa see in * ' ' ' - - -- ' * :..j.-, ..■,>....' 
ful titan th'- it wa^ ma/le 

up. Stars, crogees, diamonds, and I know not 



^tiCTing light on them, except in rerr cold weatb- 
ex. ■ 

a -^ : _ . . 

of it for a moment you will be amazed and awed, 

for it brings us as if fiace to r 

is it ths* -' '.--" w^.- 

the m*^ J*' tlian 

an iKe the : 

T . . ; nrer — r -' 

ii-lure. E . of the <^ a 

kw impressed oo it by God, by which it tases it^ 

proper place in ' ' ' " ; * 

jewels. Can 2 . 

r 7 vr ' t we find in the rock* ? Yet tbey are f. . : t 

r,' vf ^•■'^'r.- *''•'-■ --:>'-" 

^aaoMk kind of crystaL VhaUM^fi'lten think that th« 



114 Tlie Minute Perfection of God's Works. 

particles of eacli kind of crystal have each the per- 
fect shape which the whole crystal assumes ; but if 
this be so, it makes the matter still more wonderful, 
for what shall we think of atoms, which no magnify- 
inii' power can make visible, being carved and pierced 
and fretted into the most lovely shapes and ])at- 
terns ? The great power of God is, I think, shown 
even more wonderfully in the smallest than in the 
largest of His works. The miracles of his creative 
skill are lavished almost more profusely on its least 
than on its larger productions, in animate as well as 
inanimate nature. The crystalline lens of a cod's 
eye — that is, the central hard part of it, which is 
very little larger than a pea, and is quite transparent 

— was long tliought to have no special wonder in its 
structure ; but the microscope has shown latterly, 
that what appeared a mere piece of hard jelly, is 
made up of five millions of distinct fibres, which are 
locked into each other by sixty-two thousand mil- 
lions of teeth ! The grasshopper has two hun- 
dred and seventy horny teeth, set in rows in his 
gizzard. A quarto volume has been written on 
the an9-t.omy of the earth-worm. At Bilin, in Hun- 
gary, t^ere is a kind of stone which the great micro- 
scopist — or histologist, as the phrase sometimes is 

— Dr. Ehrenberg, has found to consist, nearly 
altogether, of creatures so small that three hundred 
and thirty millions of them make a piece only about 
twice the size of one of the dice used in backgam- 
mon, and yet each of these creatures is covered with 



Tlie Minute Perfection of God's Works. 115 

a coat of mail delicately carved all over. What 
can be more lovely than the way in which the 
little feathers are laid on a butterfly's wing, in such 
charming spots and bars of different colors ? I was 
looking lome time since at a butterfly, which was 
of the^'most perfect azure blue when you looked 
down on it, but changed, when you saw it sideways, 
from one shade to another, and asked an entomolo- 
oist how it was it had so many difl-erent tints, tak- 
hicr nearly every color by turns. It is by the won- 
dcn-ful arrangement of the feathers, it seems, all this 
is done, the way in which they are laid on the wings 
beino- such as to break the rays of light into all these 
colons, according to the angle at which it is held to 
the eye. How wonderful the Being whose very 
smallest works are so perfect ! 

The snow in cold countries is very different in 
appearance at different times, as I have already in- 
timated. In comparatively mild weather it ftiUs 
and lies in large soft flakes ; but in very cold weather 
it comes down almost in powder, and crackles below 
the feet at each step. The first showers seldom he, 
the air being too warm as yet; indeed, warm, com- 
fortable days sometimes continue quite late. I re- 
member one November, when we were without fires, 
even in the middle of it, for some days together; 
and in one extraordinary December, ploughs were 
actually going on Christmas-day; but this was as 
groat a ^vonder as a Canadian frost would be in 
Encvland. The first winter, enough fell in Novem- 



Bn^^HHHBai^ 



116 Beer-nliootlng. 

ber to cover all tlic stumps in our field, wlilcli we 
did uot see again for many Avceks. The dqjtli of 
the snow must have been at least a yard. In the 
woods, there was only a dead level of snow, instead 
of the rouoli floorino- of fallen loo;s and broken 
branches. At first we could not stir tlu'ougli it for 
the depth, and had to make a path to the barn and 
to the road ; but after a time a thaw came for a day 
or so, and some rain fell, and then the surface of 
the snow froze so firmly that even the oxen could 
walk over it in any direction without breaking 
through. 

The falling of the snow was a c^'cat time for the 
sportsmen of our household, for the deer were then 
most easily killed, the snow, while soft, showing their 
tracks, and also making them less timid, by forcing 
them to seek far and near for their food. Our ri- 
fles were, consequently, put in the best order as soon 
as the ground was white ; and each of us saw, in 
imagination, whole herds of stags which he had 
brought down. Frederic, who had been left in To- 
ronto, having suffered in health by the confinement 
of his office, had given it up, and had joined us 
some time before this, so that there were now five 
of us, besides my two sisters. We had three rifles 
and one gun, the rifle which David carried being 
an especially good one. But he Avas the poorest 
shot of us all, and Robert was too nervous to be sure 
of his aim; but Ileiny was as cool before a stag as 
if it had been a rabbit. We were all in a state of 



Deer-shooting. 117 

great eagerness to commence, and had already looked 
out white clothes to put on over our ordinary suit, 
that Ave might be more like the snow ; an extra sup- 
ply ot" bullets and powder had been put into our 
pouches and flasks ; and we had pestered every one, 
for weeks before, with every possible question as 
to what we were to do when we set out. On 
the eventful day, my brothers, Robert, Henry, and 
David, got their rifles on their shoulders immedi- 
ately after breakfast, and, having determined on 
taking each a different road, struck into the woods 
as each thought best. Shortly befure dark we 
heard David's voice in the clearing, and, soon after, 
Robert and Henry made their appearance. We 
were all out in a moment to see what they 
had got, but found them by no means disposed 
to be talkative about their adventures. We grad- 
ually learned, however, that they had all had 
a hard day's trudge through the rough, weari- 
some woods, and that Robert had had one good 
chance through the day, but was so flustered 
when the deer sprang aw^ay thi'ough the tree, 
that he could not raise his rifle in time, and had 
fired rather at where it had been than at where it 
was. David declared that he had walked forty 
miles, he supposed, and had seen nothing, though, 
if he had seen only as much as a buck's tail, he Avas 
sure he would have brought it down. Henry said 
that, do his best, he could not get near enough, Avhat 
with the Avind and the crackhncf of somethino; or 



HBMHmiHlBBBa 



118 Deer-sJiootinj. 

other. The fact was that they were raw lianJs, and 
needed some training, and liad liad to sutler the 
usual penalty of over-confidence, in reaping only 
disappointment. They felt this indeed so much, 
that it was some time before they would ventiu'c 
out alone again, preferring to accompany an old 
hunter who lived near us, until they had caught 
the art from him. Henry went out with an Indian, 
also, once, and thus gradually became able to man- 
age by himself. He had the honor of killing the 
first deer, and setting up the trophy of its horns. 
He had walked for hours, thiidxing every little while 
he saw something through the trees, but had been 
disappointed, until, towards midday, Avhen, at last, 
he came upon a couple browsing on tlie tender tips 
of the brush, at a long distance from him. Then 
came the hardest part t)f the day's work, to get 
within shot of them without letting them hear or 
smell him. He had to dodge from tree to tree, and 
Avould look out every minute to see if they were 
still there. Several times the buck pricked its ears, 
and looked all round it, as if about to run off, mak- 
ing him almost hold his breath with anxiety lest it 
should do so ; but, at last, he got near enough, and 
takino; a cjood aim at it from behind a tree, drew the 
trigger. A spring forward, and a visible moment- 
ary quiver, showed that he had hit it ; but it did not 
immediately fall, but ran off with the other through 
the woods. Instantly dashing out to the spot where 
it had stood, Henry followed its track, aidfd by the 



Deer-sJiootinff. 119 

blood wliicli every here and there lay on the snow. 
He thought at first he would come up with it in a 
few hundroi yards, but it led him a long weary 
chase of nearly two miles before he got with in sight 
of it. It had continued to run until weakness from 
the loss of blood had overpowered it, and it lay quite 
dead when Henry reached it. It was too groat a 
weight for him to think of carrying home himself, 
so that he determined to cut it vip, and hang the 
pieces on the neighboring branches, till he could 
come back next morning; with some of us and fetch 
them. "Copying the example of the old hunter 
whom he had made his model, he had taken a long 
knife and a small axe with him ; and, after cutting 
the throat to let off what blood still remained, tiie 
creature being still warm, he was not very long ot 
stripping it of its skin, and hanging up its dismem- 
bered body, for preservation from the wolves 
throuo-h the night. This done, he made the best of 
his way home to tell us his achievement. 

Next day, we had a grand banquet on venison- 
steaks, fried with ham, and potatoes in abundance ; 
and a better dish I think I never tasted. Venison 
pie, and soup, for days after, furnished quite a treat 
in the house. 

A few days after this, while the winter was 
hardly as yet fairly begun, David and Henry had 
gone out to their work on the edge of the woods, 
wher. a deer, feeding close to them, lifted up its head, 
and, looking back at them, turned slowly away. 



MMMI 



120 Deer-shooting. 

They were back to the liouse in a moment for thcii 
rifles, and salhed forth after it, following its track 
to the edge of the creek on our lot, where it liad 
evidently crossed on the ice. David reached the 
bank first ; and, naturally enough, thinking tliat 
ce which bore up a large deer would bear liim up, 
stepped on it to continue the pursuit. But lie had 
forgotten that the deer liad four legs, and thus 
pressed comparatively little on any one part, 
whereas his whole weight was on one spot, and he 
had only reached the middle when in he went, in a 
moment, up to his middle in the freezing water. 
The ducking was quite enough to cool his ardor 
for that day, so that we had him back to change 
his clothes as soon as he could get out of his bath 
and reach the house. Henry got over the stream 
on a log, and followed the track for some distance 
further, but gave up the chase on finding it likely 
to be unavailing. 

When we first came to live on the river, the 
deer were very numerous. One day in the first 
winter Robert saw a whole herd of them, of some 
eioht or ten, feeding close to the house, amono; our 
cattle, on some browse which had been felled for 
them. Browse, I may say, is the Canadian word 
for the tender twigs of trees, which are so much 
liked by the oxen and cows, and even by the 
horses, that we used to cut down a number of trees, 
and leave them with the branches on them, for the 
benefit of our four-footed retainers. On seeing so 



Deer-shooting. 121 

grand a chance of bagging two deer at a shot, Rob- 
ert ruslied m for liis rifle at once, but before he 
had got it loaded, although he flustered through 
the process with incredible haste, and had us all 
running to bring him powder, ball, and wadding, 
the prey had scented danger, and were gone. 

We had quite an excitement one day by the cry 
that a staf was swimming across the river. On 
looking up the stream, there he was, sure enough, 
with his noble horns and his head out of the water, 
doing his best to reach the ojiposite shore. In a 
few minutes we saw John Coiu-tenay and his boys 
paddling off in hot haste, in their canoe, in pursuit. 
Every stroke flashed in the light, and the little 
craft skimmed the calm water like an arrow. 
They were soon very close to the great creature, 
which flew faster than ever, and then a bullet from 
Courtenay's rifle ended the chase in a moment. 
The stag was instantly seized to prevent its sink- 
ing, and dragged off to the shore by a rope tied 
round its antlers. 

Some people are cruel enough to kill deer in the 
spring, when their young are with them, and even 
to kill the young themselves, though they are 
worth very little when got. One of the neighbors 
one day wounded a fawn which was following its 
mother, and as usual ran up to secure and kill it. 
But to his astonishment, the maternal affection of 
the doe had so overcome its timidity, that, instead 
of fleeing the moment it heard the shot, it would 
11 



122 Useless Cruelty. 

not leave its poor bleeding young one, but turned 
on him, and made such vigorous rushes towards 
him, again and again, that it was only by making 
all kinds of noise he could frighten her far enough 
back to let him get hold of the fawn at last. I 
wish that instead of merely running at him, the lov- 
ing-hearted creature had jriven him a good hard 
butt with her head ; it would have served liim right 
for such cruelty. Taking away life is only justifia- 
ble, I think, when there is some other end than 
mere amusement in view. To find happiness in 
destroying that of other Uving beings is a very un- 
worthy enjoyment, when one comes to think of it. 
To go out," as I have seen both men and boys do, 
to shoot the sweet little singino; birds in the hedges, 
or the lark when he is fluttering down, after having 
filled the air with music, or the slow-flying seagulls, 
as they sail heavily near the shore, can only give a 
pleasure so long as those who indulge in it do not 
reflect on its cruelty. I remember, when a boy, 
being often very much struck with this, but, more 
especially, once, when a boy shot a male thrush, as 
it was bringing home a little worm for its young 
ones, which would very likely die when their father 
was killed ; and, once, when a man shot a seagull, 
which fell far out on the water, from which it 
would often tiy in vain to rise, but where it would 
have to float, helpless and in pain, till released by 
death. 

Continued persecution, by every one, at all sea- 



Useless Cruelty, 123 

sons, lias nearly banished the deer from all the set- 
tled parts of Canada, for years back. There are 
game laws now, however, fixing a time, within 
which, to destroy them is punishable, and it is to 
be hoped they may do some good. But the rifle is 
of use only for amusement in all the older districts, 
and if you want to get sport like that of old times, 
you must go to the frontier townships, where every 
thing is yet almost in a state of nature. 

The Indians were harder on every kind of game, 
and still are so, tliau even the white settlers. 
They have long ago laid aside the bow and arrow 
of their ancestors, in every part of Canada, and 
availed themselves of the more deadly power of 
firearms. As they have nothing whatever to do, 
most of their time, and as the flesh of deer is, at 
once, food, and a means of getting other things, by 
bartering it for them, and as it suits their natural 
taste, they used to be, and still are, hunters by pro- 
fession. One Indian and his son, who had built 
their wigwam on our lot, in the first years of our 
settlement, killed in one winter, in about three 
weeks, no fewer than forty deer, but they spoiled 
every thing for the rest of the season, as those that 
escaped them became so terrified that they fled to 
some other part. 

The species of deer common in Canada is the 
Virginian, and, though not so large as some others, 
their long, open ears, and graceful tails — longei 
than those of some other kinds, and inclining to be 



124 Shedding of the Stag's Horns. 

bushy — give tliem a very attractive appearance. 
The most curious tiling about them, as about other 
deer, was tlie growth and casting of the stags' horns. 
It is not till the spring of the second year that the 
first j)air begin to make their appearance, the first 
sign of their coming being a swelling of the skin 
over the spots from which they are to rise. The 
antlers are now budding; for on these spots are 
the footstalks from which they are to spring, and 
the arteries are beginning to deposit on them, 
particle by particle, with great rapidity, the bony 
matter of which the horns are composed. As the 
antlers grow, the skin still stretches over them, and 
continues to do so, till they have reached their full 
size, and have become quite hard and solid, and 
forms a beautiful velvet covering, which is, in reality, 
underneath, nothing but a great tissue of blood- 
vessels for supplying the necessary circulation. 
The arteries which run up from the head, through 
it, are, meanwhile, so large, that they make furrows 
on the soft horns underneath ; and it is these that 
leave the deeper marks on the horns when hard. 
When the antlers are full-grown, they look very 
curious while the velvet is still over them, and are 
so tender that the deer can, as yet, make no use of 
them. It must therefore be removed, but not too 
suddenly, lest the quantity of blood flowing through 
such an extent of skin should be turned to the 
brain or some internal organ, and death be the 
result. Danger is prevented, and the end at the 



S'heddlng of the Stages Iloms. 125 

same time accomj)li8liecl, by a roiigli ring of Lone 
being now de])osited round tbe base of the liorns 
where they join tlie footstalk, notclies being left in 
it, tlirougli wliicli the arteries still ])ass. Gradual 
ly, however, these openings are contracted by fresh 
bone beinor formed round their edg-es, till at length 
the arteries are compressed as by a ligature, and 
the circulation effectually stopped. The velvet 
now dies, for want of the vital fluid, and peels off", 
the deer helping to get it off" by rubbing its horns 
against the trees. It was by noticing this process 
of stoj)ping the arteries in the antlers of stags, that 
John Hunter, the great anatomist, first conceived 
the plan of reducing the great swellings of the 
arteries in human beings which are called aneurisms, 
by tying them up — a mode which, in certain cases, 
is found quite effectual. The highest thoughts of 
genius are thus frequently only new applications of 
principles and modes of operation which God has 
established in the humblest orders of nature, from 
the beginning of the world. Indeed they are al 
ways so, for we cannot create any absolutely new 
conception, but must be contented to read and apply 
wisely the teachings furnished by all things around 
us. When the velvet is gone, the horns are, at 
last, perfect, and the stag bears them proudly, 
and uses them fiercely in his battles with his rivals. 
But the cutting off the arteries makes them no 
longer a part of the general system of the animal. 
They are, thenceforth, only held on to the foot- 
11* 



126 



Shedding of the Stag's Horns. 



stalks by tlicir having grown from tliem, and, 
hence, each spring, wlien a new pair begin to swel' 
up from beneath, the old ones are pushed off and 
fall away, to make room for others. It is curious 
to think that such great things as full-o;rown stags' 
horns drop off and are renewed every year ; but so 
it is. Beginninn; with the sino;le horn of the first 
season, they grow so much larger each season till 
the seventh, when they reach their greatest size. 
But, after all, is it any more wonderful that their 
horns should grow once a year, than that our hair 
should grow all the time? And is a horn any 
thino; more than hair stuck together ? 



Wulves. 



127 



CHAPTER VII. 



Wolves. — My adventure with a bear. — Courtenay's cow and the 
wolves. — A friglit in the woods by night. — The river freezes. — 
Our winter fires. — Cold, cold, cold! — A winter's joiirnoy. — 
Sleighing. — Winter nuittiings. — Accidents through intense cold. 



THE wolves used to llivor us by liowling at 
nights, close at li:ind, till the sound made one 
miserable. We had five sheep destroyed in the 
barn-vard on one of these occasions, nothing beincj 
done to them beyond tearing the throats open and 
drinking the blood. Perhaps the wolves had been 
disturbed at their feast. I never heard of any one 
being killed by them, but they sometimes put be- 
nighted travellers in danger. One night, Henry 
was coming home from a neighbor's, in the bright 
moonhoht, and had almost reached our clearino-, 
when, to his horror, he heard the cry of some 
Avolves behind him, and, feeling sure they wished 
to make their supper at his expense, he made off, 
with the fastest heels he could, to a tree that stood 
by itself, and w^as easily climbed. Into this he got 
just in time to save himself, for the wolves were 
already at the foot of it, when he had made good 
his seat across a bough. The night was fearfully 
cold, and he must soon have frozen to death had 



128 Wolves. 

he not, providentially, been so near tlie house 
As it was, his loud whistling for the dogs, and his 
shouts, were, fortunately, heard, and some of us 
sallying out, he was delivered from his perilous 
position. Wolves are much scarcer now, however, 
1 am thankful to say, owing in part, no doubt, to 
a reward of two sovereigns which is offered by 
Government for every liead brought in. In the 
regions north of Canada they seem to aboiind, and 
even on the shores of the Arctic Ocean they are 
found in great numbers. Sir John Franklin, in 
one of his earlier journeys, often came uj)on the 
remains of deer Avhich had been hemmed in by 
them and driven over precipices. " Whilst the 
deer are quietly grazing," says he " the wolves 
assemble in great numbers, and, forming a deep 
crescent, creep slowly towards the herd, so as not 
to alarm them much at first ; but when they per- 
ceive that they have fairly hemmed in the unsus- 
pecting creatures, and cut off their retreat across the 
})lain, they move more quickly, and with hideous 
yells terrify their prey, and urge them to flight by 
the only open Avay, which is toward the precipice, 
appearing to know that when the herd is at full 
speed it is easily driven over the cliffs, the rear- 
most urging on those that are before. The wolves 
then descend at leisure and feed on the mangled 
carcasses." 

There were some bears in the woods, but they 
did not troulile us. My sister Margaret and I were 



i 



Coiirtenay s Cow and the Wolves. 129 

tlic only two of our family who liatl an adventure 
with one, and that ended in a fright. It was in tlie 
summer time, and we had strolled out into the 
woods to amuse ourselves with picking the wild 
berries, and o-atherino; flowers. I had climbed to 
the top of the uptuined root of a tree, the earth on 
which was thick with fiuit, and my sister was at a 
short distance behind. Having just got up, I 
chanced to turn round and look down, when, lo ! 
there stood a bear, busy at the raspberries, which he 
seemed to like as much as Ave did. You may be 
certain that the first sight of it was enough. I 
sprang down in an instant, and, shouting to my 
sister that there was a bear behind the tree, we 
both made off homewards with a speed which aston- 
ished even ourselves. The poor brute never offered 
to disturb us, though he might have made a meal 
of either of us had he chosen, for I don't think we 
could have run had we seen him really after us. 

I had forgotten a story about the wolves, which 
happened a year or two after our first settling. 
John Courtenay had a coav which fell sick, and was 
lying in the field, after night, in the Avinter time, 
very likely without any one missing it, or, if they 
missed it, Avithout their knowing Avhere to find it in 
the dark. The Avolves, howcA^er, did not overlook 
it, for, next morning, poor CoAvslip Avas found killed 
by them, and its carcass ha\'ing been left, the family 
not liking to use it under the circumstances, they 
held high carnival over it, night after night, till the 



130 A Friijht in the ^Yoo(h Inj Night. 

bones were ])ickecl clean. Tliis happened quite 
close to the house. 

But if there were not many hears and wolves to 
be seen, we were not the less afraid they would 
pounce on us, when, by any chance, we should hap- 
pen to he coming through the woods after dark. I 
remember a vouuf friend and mvself bein<]c half- 
frightened in this way one summer evening, when 
there chanced to be no moon, and we had to walk 
home, through the great gloomy forest, wjien it was 
pitch dark. Before starting, we were furnished 
with a number of long slips of the bark of the hicko- 
ry-tree, which is very inflammable, and, liaviiig 
each lighted one, we sallied out on our journey, 1 
shall never forget the wild look of every thing in the 
flickerino; liy;ht, the circle of darkness closino; in 
round us at a very short distance. But on we went, 
along the winding ])ath, liither and thither, among 
the trees. Suddenly an unearthly sound broke 
from one side, a sort of screech, which was repeated 
aoain and acrain. We took it for granted some 
bear and her young ones were at hand, but whei'e, 
it seemed impossible for us to discover. How could 
we run, in sucli darkness, over such a path, with 
lights to carry ? Both of us stood still to listen. 
Again came the " hoo, hoo, hoo ; " and I assure 
you it sounded very loud in the still forest. But, 
though terrible to me, 1 noticed that, wlien distinctly 
caught, it ceased to alarm my conu'ade. " It's only 
a great owl up in the the ti'ees there — what's tho 



The River Freezes. 131 

use of being frio;litenecl ? " he broke out ; yet lie 
had been as much so as myself, the moment before. 
However, we uow made up for our panic by a 
hearty laugh, and went on in quietness to the house. 
Toward the end of December the river froze. 
This was, in great part, caused by large blocks of 
ice floating down from Lake Superior, and getting 
caught on the banks, as they went past, by the ice 
already formed there. For one to touch another, 
was to make them adhere for the rest of the winter, 
and, thus, in a very short time after it had begun, 
the whole surface was as solid as a stone. We had 
now to cut a hole every morning, with the axe, 
through the ice, to let the cattle drink, and to get 
water for the house, and cold work it was. The 
cattle came down themselves, but when, a year or 
two afterwards, we got horses, they had to be led 
twice a day. It was very often my task to take 
them. Riding was out of the question, from the 
steepness of the bank, and the way in which their 
feet balled with the snow, so I used to sally out lor 
them in a thick greatcoat, with the ears of my ca]) 
carefully tied down, to prevent fi-ostbites ; a tliuk 
worsted cravat round my neck, and thick mitts on 
my hands. The floor of the stable was, invariably, 
a sheet of ice, and over this I had to get out the two 
horses, letting the one out over the icy slope at the 
door, and then holding the halter till the second one 
had slid past me, when, having closed the door, with 
hands like the snow, from having had to loosen the 



132 



Oar Winter Fires. 



halters, I went down witli tlieni. When tlie wind 
was from the nortli tliey were white in a step or 
two, with their breatli frozen on tlieir eliests and 
sides, tlie cold niakino- it like smoke as it left their 
nostrils. Of course they were in no hurrv, and 
would put tlieir tails to the Avind and drink a 
minute, and then lift up their heads and look round 
them at their leisure, as if it were June. By the 
time they were done, their mouths and chins were 
often coated with ice, long icicles hanging from the 
hair all round. Right glad was I when at last I had 
them fairly back again, and had knocked out the 
balls of snow from their shoes, to let them stand 
firm. 

The cold did not last all the time, else we could 
never have endured it. There would be two or 
three days of hard frost, and then it woidd come 
milder for two or three more ; but the mildest, ex- 
cept when it was a thaw, in January, were very 
much colder than any that are common in Eno;- 
land, and as to the coldest, what shall I say they 
were like? The sky was as Inight and clear as 
can be imagined, the snow crackled under foot, ajid 
the wind, when there was any, cut the skin like a 
razor. Indoor^s, the fire in the kitchen was enough 
to heat a large hall in a more temperate climate. 
It was never allowed to so out, the last thino- at 
night being to roll a huge back-log, as they called 
it, into the fireplace, with handspikes, two of us 
sometimes having to help to get it into its place. 



,1 



Cold, cold, cold! 133 

It was slinp]}" a cut of a tree, about four feet long, 
and of various tlilckncsses. The two dog-irons 
having been drawn out, and the embers heaped 
close to this giant, a number of thinner logs, whole 
and in" parti;, were tlien laid above them, and the 
fire was " gathered " for the night. By day, what 
with another huge back-log to replace the one 
burned up in the niglit, and a great bank of other 
smaller "sticks" in front and over it, I think there 
was often half a cart-loatl blazing at a time. In 
fact, the only measure of the (piantity was the size 
of the huge cliimney, for the wood cost nothing ex- 
cept the trouble of cutting and bringing it to the 
house. It was grand to sit at night before the roar- 
ing mountain of fire and forget the cold outside ; 
but it was a frightful thin*]; to dress in the mornino;* 
in the bitter cold of the bedrooms, wdth the win- 
dows thick with frost, and the water frozen solid at 
your side. If you touched a tumbler of water with 
your toothbrush it would often freeze in a moment, 
and the water in the basin sometimes froze round 
the edo;es while Ave were washino;. The tears would 
come out of our eyes, and freeze on our cheeks as 
they rolled down. The towels were regularly 
frozen like a board, if they had been at all damp. 
Water, brought in over night in buckets, and put 
as close to the fire as possible, had to be broken 
with an axe in the morning. The bread, for long 
after we w^ent to the river, till we got a new house, 
was like a stone for hardness, and sparkled with 

12 



134 Cold^ cold, cold! 

the ice in it. The milk froze on tne way from the 
barn to the house, and even while they were milk- 
ing. If you went out, your eyelaslies froze 
togetlier every moment with your breath on tliem, 
and my brothers' whiskers were always white with 
frozen breath when they came in. Beef and 
every thing of the kind were frozen solid for months 
together, and, when a piece Avas wanted, it had to 
be sawn off and put in cold water overnight to 
thaw it, or hung up in the house. I have known 
beef that liad been on for hours taken out almost 
raw, from not having been thawed beforehand. 
One of the coldest nights I remember happened 
once when I was from home. I was to sleep at 
the house of a magistrate in the village, and had 
gone with a minister who was travelling for the 
British and Foreign Bible Society to attend a meet- 
ing he had appointed. It was held in a wooden 
school-house, with three windows on each side, and 
a single story high. There was a stove at the end 
nearest the door, which opened into tlie room ; the 
pipe of it was carried up to near the roof, and then 
led along the room to a chimney at the o])posite 
end. The audience consisted of seven or eifrht 
men and boys, though the night Avas magnificent, 
the stars hanging from the dark blue like sparkling 
globes of light. The cold, in fact, Avas so intense 
that nobody would venture out. When I got in, I 
found the congregation huddled round the stove, 
which one of them, seated in front of it, was assidu- 



Cold^ cold, cold! 135 

ously stuffing with wood, as often as the smallest 
chance offered of his being able to add to its contents. 
The stove itself was as red as the fire inside of it, 
and the i)ipe, for more than a yard up, was the 
same ; but our backs were wretchedly cold, not- 
withstandiiii:, thouo-h we sat within a few inches of 
the glowing iron. As to the windows, the rime on 
them never thought of melting, but lay thick and 
hard as ever. How the unfortunate speaker bore 
his ])lace at the master's desk at the far end I know 
not. lie had only one arm, indeed, but the hand 
of the other was kept deeply bedded in his pocket 
all the time. We were both to sleep at the same 
house, and therefore returned together, and after 
supper were shown into a double-bedded room with 
a painted floor, and a great stove in the middle. 
A delightful roar up the pipe promised comfort for 
the night, but alas ! in a few minutes it died away, 
the fire having been made of chips instead of sub- 
stantial billets. Next morning, on waking, looking 
over to Mr. Thompson, I expressed a hope that ho 
had rested well through the night. 

" Rested ! " said he ; "I thawed a piece my ovvn 
size last night when I first got in, and have lain in 
it all night as if it had been my coffin. I daren't 
put out my leg or my hand ; it was like ice up to 
my body." 

One w^inter I had a dreadful journey of about 
two hundred miles. We started in the stage, 
which was an open rough wagon, at seven o'clock 



136 A Winter^ Journey. 

at night, tlie roads not as yet permitting sleighs. 
It was in tlie first week of January. I had on two 
greatcoats, but there were no buffalo robes to lay 
over the knees, though the stage sliould have ])i-o- 
vided them. All that dreadi'ul dark night I had 
to sit there, while the horses stuujl)ied on at a walk, 
and the wagon bumped on the frozen clods most 
dreadfully. The second day's ride was much better, 
that part of the road being smoother ; but the next 
day and night — what shall I say of them ? I be- 
gan in a covered sleigh, some time in the forenoon, 
the distance being seventy miles. There was an- 
other person in it besides myself. Off we started 
at a good pace, but such was the roughness of the 
road, up oue wave of frozen earth and snow, and 
down another, that both of us were thoroughly sea- 
sick in a short time. Each took possession of a 
window, and getting the head in again was out of 
the question till the sickness fairly spent itself. Mean- 
while, there was a large high wooden box in the 
sleigh between us, and we had to keep a hand 
a-piece on it, lest it should take us at unawares, and 
make a descent on our legs or backs. After a time, 
the covered sleigh was exchanged for an open one 
— a creat heaw farmer's affair, a mere lono; box 
upon runners. To add to our troubles, they put a 
great black horse, as one of the two to draw ns, 
which was so wild and fierce that I have always 
thought it must have been mad. ItAvas now dark 
night, and there were again no buffalo robes, and 



ISleifjldng. 137 

the thermometer far Lelow zero. Hoav we stood 
it I know not. ]\ly feet were like ice, and inces- 
sant motion of botli them and my arms seemed all 
that conld keep me from freezing. Bnt away the 
black wretch tore, the driver pulling him back as 
he could, but in vain. At last, at two or three in 
the morning, bang went the sleigli against some 
stump, or huge lump of frozen mud, and — broke 
down. " You'll have to get out, gentlemen," said 
the driver. " You had better walk on to the first 
house, and 111 go before you and borrow a sleigh." 
Here then we were, turned out to stumble over a 
chaos of holes and hillocks for nearly two miles, in 
darkness, and in such a night ! I don't know how 
long we were, but we reached a wayside inn at last, 
where the driver borrowed what he could get to 
carry us and the mails to the journey's end, and 
having gone back for the bags and his parcels, and 
that horrid box, to where he had left the broken 
vehicle at the roadside, he reappeared after a time, 
and we finished otir journey, tired and cold enough, 
a little before daylight. 

The amount of suffering fi'om the cold, seldom, 
however, reaches any painful extent ; indeed, you 
wnll hear people say, on every hand, that they pos- 
itively like it, except when it is stormy, or when 
the wind blows very keenly. Nor does it hinder 
work of any kind, where there is exercise enough. 
You may see men chopping in the forest on terri- 
bly cold days, witli their jackets off, the swinging 
12 * 



138 Winter Mnfflings. 

of tliG arms making them disagreeably liot in spite 
of" the weather. Sleighing is, moreover, the great 
winter amusement of the Canadian, Mdio seems 
never so pleased as when driving fast in a " cutter," 
with the iinolino; bells on the horse's neck making 
music as it goes. But, for my part, I could never 
bear sitting with my face to the wind, while I was 
dragged through it at the rate of ten miles an hour, 
with the thermometer below zero. All the muf- 
flings you can put on won't protect the cheeks or 
the eyes, and the hands get intolerably cold hokl- 
ing the reins. Indeed, the precautions taken by 
those who have much travelling about in winter, 
show that, to those less fully prepared, there must be 
suffering as well as enjoyment. Our doctor's outfit 
for his winter })ractice used to amuse me. He liad, 
first, a huge otter fur cap, with ears ; next, over his 
greatcoat, the skin of a buffalo made into a coat, 
with the hairy side out, and reaching to his feet ; his 
%et were cased in moccasins, which came over his 
Doots and tied round the ankles* a pair of great 
hose reached up his thighs ; his hands were muffled 
in huge fur gauntlets reaching halfway to his elbow ; 
and when he took his seat in the sleio-h with all his 
wrapping, he sat down on a buffalo-skin spread over 
the seat, and stretching down over the bottom, while 
iuiother was tucked in over him, his feet resting on 
the lower edge of it to keep out every breath of air ; 
and, in addition, he always had hot bricks put inside 
on starting, and re-heated them every short while. 



I 



Accidents tlirov(jh Intense Cold. 13i) 

No wonder lie used to say tliat lie felt quite comfort- 
able. He had clothes and furs enough on him for 
Greenland. In spite of all this, however, I remem- 
ber his driving back, home, in great haste one day, 
with his wife and child, and found that the face of the 
infant had been partially frozen in a ride of four or 
five miles. Cases of death from the excessive cold 
are not infrequent. A drunken man, falling on the 
road, is certain to die if not speedily found. A poor 
Indian was frozen to death on the river in this way 
a short time after we came. But even the most 
sober people are sometimes destroyed by the awt\il 
intensity of the cold. I knew a young widow who 
had lost her husband in this way. He had gone to 
town in his sleigh, one Christmas, on business, and 
was returning, when he felt very cold, and turned 
aside to heat himself at a farm-house. Poor fellow I 
he was already so frozen that he died shortly after 
coming to the fire. This last winter, a farmer and 
his daughter were driving in from the country to 
Toronto, and, naturally enough, said little to each 
other, not caring to expose their faces ; but when 
they had reached the city and should have alighted, 
to her horror the daughter found that her father was 
stone dead, frozen at her side by the way. At 
Christmas there are a great many shooting-matches, 
at which whoever kills most pigeons, let loose from 
a trap, at a certain distance, wins a turkey. I was 
one day riding past one of these, and noticed a group 
of spectators standing round, but thought no mora 



140 Accidents through Intense Cold. 

of it, till, next morning, I learned that, when the 
match was done and the people dispersed, a boy was 
seen who continued to stand still on the vacant 
ground, and, on going up to him, it was found that 
he had been frozen stiff, and was stone dead. A 
minister once told me that he had been benighted 
on a lonely road in the deptli of the winter and could 
get no further, and, for a time, hardly knew what 
to do. At last he resolved to take out his horse, 
and, after tying its two fore legs together, let it 
seek what it could for itself till morning, while he 
himself commenced walkin"; round a great tree that 
was near, and continued doing so, without resting, 
till the next morning. Had he sat down, he would 
have fallen asleep ; and if he had slej)t, he would 
certainly have died. JMy brother Henr}', who, after 
a time, turned to the study of medicine, and has 
risen to be a professor in one of the colleges, took 
me, one day, to the hospital, with him, and, turn- 
ing into one of the wards, walked up to the bed 
of a young man. Lifting up the bottom of the 
clothes, he told me to look ; and, — what a sight ! 
both the feet had been frozen off at the ankle, and 
the red stumps were slowly healing. A poor man 
called, once, begging, whose fingers were all gone. 
He had Avalked some miles without gloves, and had 
known nothing about how to manage frozen limbs ; 
nis fingers had frozen, had been neglected, and had 
mortified, till at last such as did not drop off were 
pulled out, he told me, with pincers, being utterly 



Accidents throuyh Intense Cold. 141 

rotten at tlie joints. I know a young man, a law 
student, whose fingers are mere bone and skin : lie 
was snow-balling, and paid the penalty in the virtual 
destruction of his hands. A curious case happened 
some years ago, residting in the recovery of two 
thousand pounds of damages from the mail company. 
The stage from Montreal, westward, broke through 
an airhole on the St. Lawrence, when driving over 
the ice, and all the passengers were immersed in the 
river, one of them getting both his hands so frozen 
that he lost them entirely. They were both taken 
off at the wrists. The money was a poor consola 
tion for such a calamity. I have known of a gen 
tleman losing both hands by taking off his fur 
gloves to get better control over a runaway horse. 
He got it stopped, but his hands were lost in the 
doing it. 

The ice of the river used to give us abundant 
room for skatinji, where it was smooth enouffh. 
Near the towns every one skates, even the ladies, 
of late years, doing tlieir best at it. But the ice, 
with us, was often too rough for this graceful and 
healtlij exercise, so that it was less practised than 
it otherwise would have been. 



142 



Tlie Aurora Borealis. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Tlie aurora borealis. — "Jumpers." — Squaring timber. — Rafta. — 
Cam|iing out. — A public meeting. — Winter (asliions. — My to« 
frozen. — A long winter's walk. — Hosjjitality. — Nearly lost in 
the woods. 



nj^HE grandeur of tlie aurora borealis, in the cold 
-^ weather, particularly struck us. At times the 
whole heavens would be irradiated by it — shafts 
of light stretching from every side to the zenith, or 
clouds of brightness, of the softest rose, shooting, 
from every point of the horizon, high overhead. 
It was like the Hindoo legend of Indra's palace, 
which Southey describes so beautifully: 

" Even wc on earth at intervals descry 

Gleams of the glory, streaky of flowing light, 
Openings of Heaven, and streams tliat fl;idli ac night, 
In fitful splendor, through the northern sky." 

Curse of Kchaina, vii. 72. 

The fondness of almost every one for sleigh-rid- 
ing was ludicrously shown in the contrivances in- 
vented in some cases to get the enjoyment of tho 
luxury. The richer settlers, of course, had very 
comfortable vehicles, with nice light runners, and 
abundance of skins of various kinds, to adorn them, 



" Jumpers:' 143 

and make thein warm ; but every one was not so 
fortunate, and yet all were determined that ride 
they would. "Have you anything to go in?" 
I have heard asked, once and again, with the an- 
swer, " No, but I guess we can ng up a jumper 
pretty soon." Tiiis ''jumper," when it made its 
appearance, if it were of the most primitive type, 
consisted simply of two long poles, with the bark 
on them, the one end to drag on the ground, and 
the other to serve for shafts for the horse ; a cross- 
bar here and there behind, let into them through 
auger-holes, serving to keep them together. An 
old box, fixed on roughly above, served for a body 
to the cari'iage ; and, then, off they went, scraping 
along the snow in a wonderful way. Instead of 
buffalo-robes, if they had none, a colored bed-quilt, 
wrapped round them, served to keep them warm. 
An old wood-sleigh, with a box on it, was some- 
thing more aristocratic ; but any thing that would 
merely hold them was made to pass muster. With 
plenty of trees at hand, and an axe and auger, a 
backwoodsman never thinks himself unprovided 
wdiile the snow continues. 

It is in the winter that the great work of cutting 
and squaring timber, in the forests, for export to 
Europe, is done. Millions of acres, covered with 
the noblest trees, invite the industry of the wealthier 
merchants by the promise of liberal profit, along 
the whole edge of Canada, toward the north, from 
the Ottawa to Lake Huron. What the quantity of 



^ 



144 



Sij^uarliiij Tiinher. 



timber this vast region contains nuist be, may be 
estimated in some measure from the repoit of the 
Crown Land Commissioner, a few years since, 
■whicli says, that in the Ottawa district ak)ne, there 
is enough to answer every demand for the next six 
hundred years, if they continue felHng it at tlie 
present rate. There is no fear, assuredly, of wood 
running short in Canada for many a day. The 
rafts brought down from J^ake Huron alone are 
wonderful — thousands on thousands of immense 
trees, squared so as to lie closely together, each 
long enough, apparently, to be a mast for a large 
vessel. I have looked over the wilderness of the 
forest from two points — the one, the limestone 
ridge that runs from Niagara northward — the 
other, from the top of the sand-hills on the edge of 
Lake Huron — and no words can tell the solenni 
grandeur of the pros})ect in either case. Far as 
the eye could reach there was nothing to be seen 
but woods — woods — woods — a great sea of ver- 
dure, with a billowy roll, as the trees vai'ied in 
height, or the lights and shadow^s played on them. 
It is said that the open desert impresses the travel- 
ler with a sense of its sul)limity that is almost over- 
powering — the awful loneliness, the vast, naked, 
and apparently boundless sweep of the horizon on 
every side, relieved by no life or motion, or even 
varict}^ of outline, subduing all alike. But I ques- 
tion if the sight of an American forest be not equally 
sublime. The veil cast by the trees over the land 



Siiiiarinj Timber. 11a 

scape tliey aJurn ; tlie dim wonder what may live 
beneath them, what waters How, wliat lakes sparkle 
the consciousness that you look on nature in her 
own unprofaned retreats ; that before a white man 
had seen these shores the summer had already 
waked this wondrous spectacle of life and beauty, 
year after year, for ages ; the thoughts of mystery 
prompted by such " a boundless deep immensity of 
shade;" the sense of vastness, inseparable from the 
thought that the circle of your horizon, which so 
overpowers you, sweej)s on, in equal grandeur, over 
boundless reoions — all these and other thouohts 
fill the mind with awe and tenderness. 

The district in which, chiefly, " lumber men," 
strickly so called, ply their vocation, is on the 
Upper Ottawa, where vast tracts of pine and other 
trees are leased from Government by merchants 
in Quebec, Montreal, and elsewhere. For these 
gloomy regions vast numbers of lumberers set out 
from Kingston and Ottawa in tli£ autumn, taking 
with them their winter's provision of pork, flour, 
&c. ; and building " shanties" for themselves — that 
is, rouirli huts, to live in throuo;h the lono; winter 
— as soon as they reach their limits. Intensely 
severe as the cold is, they do not care for it. 
Sleeping at nights with their feet to the Are, and 
" roughing " it by day as no laborers would think 
of doing in England, they keep up the highest 
spirits and the most vigorous health. To fell and 
square the trees is only part of their labor ; tliey 

13 



U6 Rafts. 

must also drag tliem, over tlie snow, to the river 
by oxen, and join them into rafts after getting them 
to it. To form these, a large number of logs are 
laid closely, side by side, and lashed together by 
long, thin, supple rods, tied round pins driven into 
them, and further secured by transverse poles pin- 
ned down on them ; and they are then floated as 
rafts toward the St. Lawrence, whicli they grad- 
ually reacli, after passing, by means of contrivances 
called " slides," over the rough places, where the 
channel is broken into rai)ids. As they go down, 
])oling or sailing, or shooting tlie slides, their course 
is enlivened by the songs and shouts of the crew, 
and very exciting it is to see and hear them. Once 
in the broad, smooth water, several smaller rafts 
are often joined together, and every thing carefully 
prepared for finally setting out for the lower ports. 
Even from their starting, they are often rigged out 
with short masts and sails, and houses are built on 
them, in which the crew take up their abode dur- 
ing the voyage. When they are larger, quite a 
number of sails are raised, so that they form very 
striking objects, when slowly gliding down the river, 
a rude steering-apparatus behind guiding the vast 
construction.* 

It is wonderful how men stand the exposure of 
the winter in the forests as they do. Indeed, a fine 



* On tlic upper lakes, the crew often take their wives and 
children, with their poultry, etc., on the rafts with thcni. 



Camping out. 147 

young fellow, a friend of mine, a surveyor, toli me 
that he liked nothing better than to go off to the 
depths of the wilderness in the flill, and " camp out " 
amidst the snows, night after night, till the spring 
thaws and the growth of the leaves forced an mter- 
mission of the work of his profession. An adven- 
ture that happened to a party who had, on one occa- 
sion, to travel some distance along a river-bed, in 
winter, is only a sample of what is continually met 
with, beyond the settled parts of the country. There 
were seven or eight of them in all, including two 
half-breeds, whom they had employed, partly as 
ouides, and partly to draw their slight luggage, on 
hand sleighs, over the ice. The whole party had 
to wear snow-shoes, to keep them from sinking m- 
to the soft snow, which had drifted, in many places, 
to a great depth ; and this itself, except to experi- 
enced hands, is at once very exhausting and i)ainful 
The snow-shoe is simply a large oval frame of light 
wood, crossed with a netting, on which the foot rests, 
and to which it is strapped, the extent of surface 
thus presented enabling the wearer to pass safely 
over drifts, in which, otherwise, he would at once 
sink. Starting at the first break of the dawn, they 
plodded on as well as they could, the ankles and 
knees of some of them getting more and more pain- 
ful at every step with the weight of the great snow- 
shoes underneath. It was no use attempting to 
pick their steps in such a depth of snow, so that they 
had to take their chance of getting on to some un- 



148 



Camjnng out. 



safe [)ait of tlie ice at any moineiit. IMcanwliile, 
the sky fuA darker and more lowei'inii;, until, at last, 
it broke into a snow-storm so licavy, that tliey 
could liardly see one anotljcr at a few yards' dis- 
tance. The wind, wliicli was very stronjr, hlcw 
directly in their faces, and liowled wildly through 
the trees on each side, whirliuf^ the di-ift in thick 
clouds in every direction. Still they held on as well 
as they could, in moody silence, till, at last, it was 
evident to all that they must give up the stru^rglc, 
and make as good an encampment as they could, 
for the night, where they were. Turning aside, 
therefore, into the forest, where a dark stretch of 
pine-trees promised protection, they proceeded to get 
ready their resting-place. AVith the help of their 
axes, a ma])]e was soon felled, and large pieces of 
bark, from the fallen trees around, formed shovels, 
by which a scjuare spot of ground was cleared of 
the snow. A fire was the next great subject of in- 
terest, and this they obtained by rubbing some of 
the fibrous bark of the white cedar to powder, and 
laying over it first thin ])eelings of bircli-bark, and 
then the bark itself, a match sufiicing to set the ])ile 
hi a blaze, and the whole forest offering fuel. Pil- 
ing log on log into a grand heap, the trees around 
were soon lighted up with a glow thatshoije far and 
near. To protect themselves from the snow, which 
was still falling, a quantity of spruce-boughs were 
next laid overhead on the ram])art of snow which 
had been banked up round thcfli to the height (W 



il 



A Puhlic Meeting. 149 

nearly five feet, the cold of the day being so great, 
tliat the fierce fire, blazing close at hand, made no im- 
pression on it whatever. Slices of salt pork, toasted 
on a stick at the fire, having beeji got ready by some, 
and broth, cooked in a saucepan, by others, they 
now took their comfort, as best they could, in a 
primitive supper, logs round the fire serving for seats. 
After this came their tobacco-pipes and a long smoke, 
and then each of the party lay down with his feet 
to tlie fire, and slept, covered with snow, till day- 
light next morning. This is the life led, week after 
week, by those Avhose avocations call them to fi'e- 
quent the forests during winter ; nor are the com- 
forts of some of the [)Oorer settlers in new districts, 
while they live in " shanties," at their first coming, 
mucli greater, nor their ex[)osure much less. 

A pubHc meeting, held in the next township, 
gave us an opportunity of seeing the population of 
a wide district in all the variety of winter costume. 
We went in a neighbor's sleigh, drawn by a couple 
of rough horses, whose harness, tied here and there 
with rope, and uny)rovided w ith any thing to keejj 
the traces from falling down, or the sleigh from 
running on the horses' heels, looked as unsafe as 
possible. But Canadian horses know how to act 
under such circumstances, as if they had studied 
them, and had contrived the best plan for avoiding 
unpleasant results. They never walked down any 
descent, but, on coming to any gully, dashed down 
the icy slope at a hard gallop, and, flying across the 
13* 



150 A Public Meeting. 

logs wliicli formed a bridge at the bottom, tore up 
the opposite ascent, till forced to abate thenr speed 
by the weight of the vehicle. Then came the dri- 
ver's part to urge them up the rest of the acclivity 
by every form of threatening and persuasion in the 
vocabulary of his craft ; and the obstacle once sur- 
mounted, off we were again at a smart trot. It was 
rather mild weather, however, for comfortable sleigh- 
ing, the snow in deep places being little better 
than slush, through which it was heavy and slow 
work to drag us. At others, the gro;nid was well 
nigh bare, and then the iron-shod runners of the 
sleigh gave us most unpleasant music as they grated 
on the stones and gravel. As to shaking and jum- 
bling, there was enough of both, as often as we struck 
on a lump of frozen snow, or some other obstruction ; 
but, at last, we got to our journey's end. The vil- 
lage was already thronged by numbers who had 
come from all parts, for it Avas a political meeting, 
and all Canadians are politicians. Such costumes 
as some exhibited are surely to be seen nowhere 
else. One man, I noticed, had a suit made of drug- 
get carpeting, with a large flower on a bright-green 
ground for pattern, one of the compartments of it 
reaching from his collar far down his back. Blan- 
ket coats of various colors, tied round the waist with 
a red sash, buffalo coats, fiir caps of all sizes and 
shapes, moccasins, or coarse Wellington's, with the 
trowser-legs tucked into them, mitts, gloves, and fur 
gauntlets, added variety to the picture. Almost 



A Public Meeting. IV- i 

every one was smoking, at sonic time or other. The 
sleiiihs were ranired, some under the shed of the 
village tavern, others along the sides of the street, 
the horses looking like nondescript animals, from 
the skins and coverlets tlu'own over them to protect 
them from the cold. The " bar " of the tavern 
was the great attraction to many, and its great blaz- 
ing fire, on which a cartload of wood glowed with 
exhilarating heat, to others. Every one on entering, 
after desperate stamping and scraping, to get the 
snow from the feet, and careful brushino- of the lejis 
with a broom, to leave as little as possible for melt- 
ing, made straight to it, holding up each foot by 
turns to o;et it dried, as far as mioht be. There was 
no pretence at showing deference to any one ; a la- 
borer had no hesitation in taking the only vacant seat, 
though his employer were left standing. " Treat- 
ino; " and beino; " treated " went on with ereat 
spirit at the bar, mutual strangers asking each other 
to drink as readily as if they had been old friends. 
Wine-glasses were not to be seen, but, instead, 
tumblers were set out, and " a glass was left to mean 
what any one chose to pour into them. One old 
man I saw put his hand in a knowing way round 
his tumbler, to hide his filling it to the brim ; but he 
proved to be a confirmed and hopeless dmnkard, 
who had already ruined himself and his family, and 
was able to get drunk only at the expense of others. 
We stayed for a time to listen to the speeches, 
which were dilivered from a small balcony befora 



152 3Iij Toe Frozen. 

t]ic window of the tavern, but were very uninter- 
esting to me, at least, though the crowd stood pa- 
tiently in the snow to hear them. I confess I was 
glad when our party thought they had heard 
cnouoh, and turned their sleiiih homewards once 
more. 

1 had the misfortune to get one of my great toes 
frozen in the second or third winter. We were 
workincr at the edjie of the woods, repairlno; a fence 
which had been blown doAvn. The snow was 
pretty deep, and I had been among it some hours, 
and did not feel colder than usual, my feet being 
every day as cold as lead, whenever I was not 
moving actively about. I had had my full meas- 
ure of stam])ing and jumping to try to keep up the 
circulation, and had no suspicion of anything extra, 
till, on coming home, having taken off my stock- 
ings to heat myself better, to my consternation, the 
great toe of my left foot was as white as wax — the 
sure sign that it was frozen. Heat beino; of all 
1 lungs the most dangerous in such circumstances, 
I had at once to get as far as possible from the fire, 
while some one brought me a large basin of snow, 
with which I kept rubbing the poor stiff member 
for at least an hour before it came to its right hue. 
But what shall I say of the pain of returning circu- 
lation ? Freezino; is nothino;, but thawino; is ago- 
ny. It must be dreadful indeed where the injury 
has been extensive. Even to this day, notwith- 
standing all my rubbing, there is still a tender spot 



J 



Hospitality. 153 

in the corner of my boot on cold days. It was a 
mercy I noticed it in time, for had I put my feet 
to the fire without first thawino; it, I niioht have 
had serious trouble, and have lost it, after great 
sulfering. A gentleman I knew, who got his feet 
frozen in 1813, in marching with his regiment from 
Halifax, in Nova Scotia, to Niagara — a wonderful 
achievement in the depth of winter, through an 
uninhabited wilderness buried in snow — never 
perfectly recovered the use of them, and walked 
lame to the day of his death. 

In our early days in Canada, the sacred duty of 
hospitality was observed with a delightful readiness 
and freeness. A person who had not the means of 
paying might have travelled from one end of the 
country to another, without requiring money, and 
he would everywhere have found a cheerful wel- 
come. The fact was that the sight of a strange 
face was a positive relief from the monotony of 
everyday life, and the news brought by each visitor 
was felt to be as pleasant to hear, as the entertain- 
ment could be for him to receive. But selfish 
thoughts did not, after all, dim the beautiful open- 
handedness of backwoods hospitality. No thought 
of any question or doubt rose in the matter — to 
come to the door was to rest for. the night, and 
share the best of the house. I was once on my 
way westward to the St. Clair, from London, Can- 
ada West, just in the interval between the freezing 
of the roads and the fall of the snow. The stage 



151 Hos'pitality. 

could not run, nor was travelling by any kind of 
vehicle practicable ; indeed, none could have sur- 
vived the battering it would have got, had it been 
brouo;ht out. As I could not wait doincp nothing 
for an indefinite time, till snow made sleighing pos- 
sible, which I Avas told by the stage proprietor 
" might be a week, might be a fortnight," I deter- 
mined to walk the sixty miles as best I could. 

But such roads ! As to walking, it was impossi- 
ble ; I had rather to leap from one hillock of frozen 
mud to another, now in the middle, now at each 
side, by turns. There was a little snow, which 
only made my difliculties greater, clogging the feet, 
and covering up holes. For yards together, the 
road had been washed away by the rains, and its 
Avhole surface was dotted with innumerable little 
frozen lakes, where the water had lodged in the 
huge cups and craters of mud which joined each 
other in one long network the whole way. It was 
a dreadful scramble, in which daylight was abso- 
lutely necessary to save broken legs. No man 
could have got over it in the dark. In the early 
afternoon, I reached a tavern at the roadside and 
^lad dinner, but as 1 was told that there was 
another, seven miles ahead, I thought I could reach 
it before night, and thus get so much nearer my 
journey's end. But I had reckoned beyond my 
powers, and darkness fell while I was as yet far 
from my goal. T^uckil}^, a little log-house at a dis- 
tance, showed itself nea.r the road by the light 



Hospitality. 155 

tlirougli its windows. Stumbling toward it as I 
best could, I told tliem how I was benighted, and 
asked if I could get shelter till morning. 

" Come in, sir," said the honest proprietor, " an' 
you're welcome." He proved to be a decent shoe- 
maker ; a young man, with a tidy young woman 
for his wife ; and as I entered, he beckoned me to 
be seated, while he continued at his work on an old 
shoe, by the help of a candle before him. 
" Bad roads," said I. 

" Oh, very," answered my host. " I never puts 
any man away from my door ; nobody could get to 
the tavern over sich roads as them. Take your 
coat off, and make yourself comfortable." 

I did as I was told, and chatted with the couple 
about all the ordinary topics of backwoods con- 
versation — the price of land — the last crops — 
how long he had been there, and so on, till tea, or, 
as they called it, supper ; for Canadians generally 
take only three meals a day. And a right hearty 
meal I made, from a display of abundance of snowy 
bread, excellent butter, ham in large slices, and as 
much tea as there might be water in the kettle, for 
tea is the weak point in bush fare. When bedtime 
came, I found there was only one bed in the house, 
and could not imagine how they were to do with 
me ; but this was soon solved by their dragging the 
feather bed off, and bringing it out where I W:is, 
from the inner room, and spreading it on the fl or 
opposite the fire. Nothing would induce then to 



156 



Nearly Lost in the Woods. 



keep it for themselves and give me anything else ^ 
I was their guest, and they would have me enter- 
tained as well as they could. Next morning, a fa- 
mous breakfast was got ready, and I was again 
made to sit down with them. But not a w^ord 
\vould the honest fellow hear about money. " He 
would never be the worse for giving a bed and a 
meal to a traveller, and I was very welcome." So 
I had to thank them very sincerely and bid them 
good-day, with their consciousness of having done a 
kindness as their only reward. On this second 
day's journey, I had the most awkward mishap that 
ever befell me in the woods. I was all but lost in 
them, and that just as the sun was about to set. 
The roads were so frightful that I could hardly get 
on, and hence, when the landlord of one of the 
wayside taverns told me I would save some miles 
by cutting through the bush at a point he indi- 
cated, I was very glad to follow liis adWce, But 
trees are all very much alike, and by the time I 
got to where he told me to leave the road, I must 
have become confused ; for when I did leave it, not 
a sign of any track showed itself, far or near. I 
thought I could find it, however, and pushed on, 
as I fancied, in the direction that had been pointed 
out to me. But, still, no road made its appear- 
ance, and, finall}', in turning round to look for it, ] 
forgot which way to set myself, on again starting. 
In fact I was lost, fairly lost. I had got into a 
wide cedar-swamp, the water in which was only 



Nearly Lost in the Woods. 



157 



slightly fi'ozen, so that I had to leap from the root 
of one tree to that of another. Not a sound was to 
be heai'd, nor a living creature to he seen. Only 
trees, trees, trees, black and unearthly in the les- 
sening light. I hardly knew what to do. If 
forced to stay there all night, I might — indeed, I 
would likely — be frozen to death: but how to get 
out? That I ultimately did, I know, but by no 
wisdom of mine. There was absolutely nothing 
to guide me. ]\Iy deliverance was the merciful re- 
sult of having by chance struck a slight track, 
which I forthwith followed, emerging at last, not, 
as I had hoped, some miles ahead, but a long way 
behind where I had entered. 



14 



158 



Vtaitori, 



CHAPTER IX. 



Involuntary racing. — A backwoods' parsonage. — Graves in the 
■Nvilderness. — Notions of equality. — Arctic winters. — Kufled 
grouse. — Indian fishing in winter. — A marriage. — Our winter's 
pork. 

AMONG our occasional visitors, we liad, one 
year, at one time, no fewer than three minis- 
ters, who clianced to be on some Home Missionary 
Society business in our quarter, and very nice com- 
pany they were. Some of their stories of the ad- 
ventures that befel them in their journeys amused 
us greatly. One was a stout, hearty Irishman, the 
two others Englishmen ; and what with the excite- 
ment of fi'esh scenes every day, and the healthy 
open air, of which they had perhaps too much, they 
were all in high spirits. At one part they had 
crossed a tract of very rolling land, where the road 
was all up one slope and down another, and this, 
as every thing happened at the time to be one great 
sheet of ice, was no pleasant variety to their enjoy- 
ments. There was too little snow for sleighing, and 
yet, to ride down these treacherous descents in a 
wheeled conveyance, was impossible. At the top 
of an extra long one they had therefore determined, 



Involuntmy Racing. 159 

not only to get out, but to take the horses out, one 
of them leading tliem down, Avliile tlie other two 
broucrlit down the vehicle. It was a laro;e, double- 
seated affair, with four wheels, antl a pole for two 
horses ; and it was thought that the best j)lan to 
to get it down safely was for one of the two to go 
to the tongue of tiie pole in front, while the other 
held back behind. Every thing thus arranged, at a 
given signal the first movement over the edge of 
the slope was made, and all went well enough for a 
few steps. But the worthy man behind soon felt 
that he had no power whatever, with such slippery 
footing, to retard the quickening speed of the wheels, 
while the stout Irishman, who chanced to be at the 
front, felt, no less surely, that he could neither let 
liis pole go, nor keep it fi'om driving him forward 
at a rate to which he was wholly unaccustomed. 
"Stop it, Brooks — I'll be killed! — it'll be over 
me ! " "I can't stop it," passed and repassed in a 
moment, and, at last, poor Mr. Brook's feet having 
gone from under him, the whole affair was consigned 
to his Irish friend, whom the increasing momentum 
of his charge was making fly down the hill at a 
most unclerical rate. " I'll be killed ! I'm sure 
it'll be over me ! " was heard to rise from him as he 
dashed away into the hollow beneath. His two 
friends not only could do nothing to help him, but 
could not move for laughing, mixed with anxiety, 
till at last the sufferer managed to find relief when 
he had been carried a considerable way up the next 
slope. 



ICO A Backwoods^ Parsonage. 

One of tlie tlircc wore a contrivance over his for 
cap in travelling, which, so fiir as I have noticed, 
was unique. It was made of" brown Berlin wool, 
nuich in the shaj)e of" one of the helmets of the 
Kniij;hts Templars, in the Tem])le Chur<-Ii,the only 
opening being f"oi' part of the i'acc, whiU^ what you 
might call its tails hung down onci' liis slioiddcr. 
He looked very much like one of the men in the 
dress l"or going down in a diving-bell, when it was 
*jn liim, liis head stiindinji out like a huiie ball from 
Jiis shoulders. Their entertainment was, it appeared, 
sometimes stranii-e enoujrh. One <fave an account 
of a night he had spent in a backwoods' ])arsonage, 
wlierc tli<' mice hnd run over his j)ill()W :ill niglit, 
the oidy fui'uitui'e in his room, besides the bed, 
being sonu* pieces of bacon and a bit of cheese. He 
had had the only spare room in the house, which, 
in fiict, in the absence of guests, served as a store- 
room. Nor was this the worst ; though it was in 
the depth of winter, he could see the stars through 
chinks of the roof as he lay, and snow having come 
on in the night, he found it lying deep on his cover- 
let when he awoke. What some clergymen suffer 
in the poorer districts must, indeed, be terrible. A 
touching thing about the one who could offer only 
such poor acconnnodation to a friend, was his point- 
ing to a little mound in the few feet of enclosure 
before his door, and saying that his only son, an in- 
fant, was buried there. The way in which graves 
are scatt .'n;(l up and down Canada is, indeed, one 



NvtiuiiB of EquaUlij. 161 

of the most iiffectiiig siglits, as one passes. Cliurcli- 
yaixls are, of course, only found where po])uhitiop 
has gathered to some extent, and hence, all who 
die in the first periods of settlement used to be bu- 
ried on their own farms. Very often, in riding 
through old parts of the country, a little paling in 
the side of a field tells the story of some lonely 
grave. The Moslems, who feel themselves about to 
die in the desert, pass away with a j)arting j)rayer that 
the Resurrection Angi-l may not forget their lonely 
resting-places at the last day. I have often thought 
that these patriarchs of the woods might h:^ve closed 
their life with the same petition. 

One of our visitors told us an amusing story of 
the notions of equality that everywhere prevailed. 
He had been visiting an old Canadian township, 
with his wife and a young lady, their friend, and 
found, when night came, that tlicre was only one 
bed iinoccupied, which was appropriated to himself 
and his wife. Their friend was, therefore, led away 
to another room in which there were two beds — 
one for the host and his wife, the other for the ser- 
vant, and to this she was pointed, with the infor- 
mation that if she lay close she could find room at 
the ffirl's back. Not altogether relishing this ar- 
rangement, she made some excuse for returning 
to the " parlor," where she sat for a time, only 
coming to her sleeping-place when she could not 
help it. But that she should ever have hesitated in 
the matter, seemed to all, alike, unaccountable, and, 



1G2 



Arctic Winters. 



our visitor assured us, had so impressed their minds, 
that, a good while aiter, he learned that they still 
talked of it, and spoke of her pride as marking un- 
usual depravity. 

In later years I was happy to make the acquaint- 
ance, in one of the Canadian towns, of Caj)tain 

L , who had commanded one of the expeai- 

tions in search of Sir Jolm Franklin, and, in many 
conversations with him, learned })articulars of win- 
ter life in the more northern })art of the American 
continent, which, in comparison, make that of Can- 
ada even inviting. To think of undressing;, for eight 
months of the year, in these fearful regions, is out 
of the question. The dress, frozen stiff through the 
day, is thawed into soaking wetness by the heat of 
a snow-house at night, in which each sits as close 
to his neighbor as is possible, with no light but that 
of a miserable lamp, and imprisoned on every side 
by the heaped-up blocks of snow. In Cariada, we 
can always get ourselves dried, whatever the weath- 
er ; but there, all alike, when not on board ship, 
are wet, month after month, each night through the 
winter. Happening one day to hear a boy whist- 
ling the negro song, " Old Uncle Ned," the captain 
stopped me with the question, " Where do you think 
I first heard that song? " Of course I told him I 
could not tell. " It was on a terrible night, in 
Prince Regent's Inlet, when we were crossing it. 
The snow was falling very heavily, and the storm 
roaring through the hummocks, and I had called a 



Ruffed Grouse. 163 

halt beliinu a great piece of ice whicli offered a 
shelter. I thought we had better build a snow- 
house behind it and take refuge for the night. The 
men squatted down in this, I in their midst, all of 
us huddled together as close as possible, and, to keep 
up their spirits through the dismal hours, they began 
singino; one thing after another, and that among the 
rest." This was worse than the encampments of 
surveyors, bad though they be. 

There was not a great deal of sport to be had, if 
we exclude the deer, in our neighborhood. When 
we went out with our guns, the snow was generally 
marked by a good many squirrel tracks, and the 
woodpeckers were still to be seen, but game, properly 
so called, was not abundant. There was some how- 
ever, and we managed to get our proportion now and 
then for our table. One day, in passing a tree, 
I heard a sound something like that of a grouse 
rising, and, on turning, to my astonishment, found it 
came from a bird like our partridges, which had 
lighted on a bough close at hand. A moment, and 
it was in a fair way for contributing to our dinner. 
These birds are in Canada called partridges, but 
their proper name is the miffed grouse. When 
sprung, it flies with great vigor and with a loud 
whirring noise, sweeping to a considerable distance 
through the woods before it alights. The cock has a 
singular power of making a drumming noise with his 
wings, which, when heard in the silence of the woods, 
has a strange effect. Standing on an old fallen log 



lG-4 



Ruffed Grouse. 



and inflating its wliole body as a turkey-cock does, 
struttino; and "wheclino; about with ereat stateliness, 
he presently begins to sti'ike with liis stiffened wings 
in short and quick strokes, which became more and 
more ra])id until they run into each other, making 
the sound to which I allude. It is no doubt the way 
in which he pays his addresses to his mate, or calls 
her from a distance. They always perch in trees, 
delighting in the thick shade of the spruce or the 
pine, and are perfect models of stupidity, letting you 
get every advantage in your efforts to shoot them. I 
have known one sit, without attemj)ting to stir, while 
a dog was getting fi'antic in his appeals at the tree 
foot that you should come and kill it. If your gun 
snap you may take your time, and, if necessary, may 
draw your charge and reload, without your victim 
moving. He will stand and gape at you during the 
whole process, even if your dog be barking and 
tearing a few yards below him. It is even said that 
you may bag a whole covey of them if you shoot the 
lowest first and go upwards. I myself have seen 
my brother, on coming on some of them when with- 
out his gun, run home perhaps half a mile for it, 
and find them still sitting where they ■were, when 
he came back, as if waiting to be shot. They are 
delicious eating, and so tender is their skin, that you 
must not think of carrying them by the head, which 
would be sure to ccme off with the weight of the 
body. 

One day, walking down the ice of the river, a 



Indian Fisldng in Winter. 



165 



curious appearance presented itself at some distance 
before me, like a brown heap, or mound, thrown up 
on the white surface. Making my way toward it, 
when about a hundred yards off, I thought I saw it 
move a little, and, halting for a moment, perceived 
that it really did so. I was half inclined to go 
home for my gun to make myself safe, when sud- 
denly the head and shoulders of an Indian, raised 
from the edge of the buftklo skin, for such it was, 
dissipated any alarm. Going up to him, I found 
he was employed in fishing, and partly for protec- 
tion, partly to keep the fish from being alarmed, 
had completely covered himself with the hide which 
had so attracted my attention. He had cut a hole 
through the two-feet-thick ice about a foot square, 
and sat with a bait hanging from one hand, while 
in the other he held a short spear to transfix any 
deluded victim which it might tempt to its destruc- 
tion. The bait was an artificial fish of white wood, 
with leaden eyes and tin fins, and about eight or 
nine inches in length. He seemed rather annoyed 
at my disturbing him ; but on my giving him a 
small ball of twine I happened to have with me, 
we became good enough friends, and after a few 
minutes I left him. 

There was a marriage on the river the first 
winter we were there, which, in some respects, 
amused us. The bride was an elegant girl, of gen- 
teel manners ; and the bridegroom Avas a well-edu- 
cated and veiy respectable young man ; but that 



166 A Marriage. 

either of them should have thought of marrying in 
such a stiitc of poverty as was common to both, was 
a thing to be thought of only in Canada. The 
bridegroom's wealth was, I believe, limited to some 
twenty pounds, and the bride brought for her por- 
tion fifty acres of land and some stock, which a 
relative gave her as a dowry. But money she 
had none, and even the shoes in which she went to 
be married, as I afterwards learned, had been bor- 
rowed from a married sister. Their future home 
was simply a dilapidated log-house, which stood 
with its gable to the roadside, })erl)aps eight feet by 
eighteen, forming two apartments, an addition, 
which had once been intended to be made, so as to 
join the end next the road at right angles, but re- 
mained unfinished, being shut off by a door of thin 
deal, which, alone, kept the wind out at that cor- 
ner. We crossed the ice to the American side to 
have the ceremony performed, after which tliere 
was a grand dinner, with true Canadian abundance, 
in her patron's house, in which, up to that time, 
she had had her home. Their own shanty not 
being as yet habitable, the young couj)le remained 
there till it was repaired, so as to let them move to 
it. But no money could be s])ent on the mansion ; 
whatever was to be done had to be done by the 
kind aid of amateurs, if any Canadians deserve that 
name, whatever they may have to undertake. 
The chimney had to be rebuilt of mud, the walls 
caulked an i filled u]) 'vitb mud, some panes of glass 



Primitive Farnitwre. 167 

put in tliu two little windows, a wooden latch to be 
fitted to the tliin deal that formed the outer door, 
and the whole had to be whitewashed, after which 
all was pronounced ready. The furniture was as 
primitive as the house. A few dishes on a rude 
shelf, a pot or two, a few wuoden chairs and a table, 
set oif the one end ; while, in the other, an apology 
for a carpet, and a few better things — the faint 
traces of richer days in their father's houses — 
made up their parlor ; a wooden bench on the one 
side, ingeniously disguised as a sofa, reminding you 
of the couplet in Goldsmith's description of the 
village ale-house, where was seen 

" Tlie clicst, contrived a double del)t to pay — 
A bed by niglit, a chest of drawers by day." 

The produce of the fifty acres, which were most- 
ly cleared, but which, having been the farm of an 
old French settler, were wellnigh worn out for a 
time, and had wretched fences, was to be the sup- 
port of the young housekeepers, though, less than a 
year before, the husband had been a student in one 
of the universities in Scotland. To have seen him 
when fairly installed in his agricultural honors, in a 
wretched straw hat, blue shirt, cotton trowsers, and 
heavy coarse boots, wdth a long blue beech rod in 
his hand, shouting to his oxen, it would hardly have 
occurred to an old countryman that he was any 
thing but a laborer. I am thankful to say, how- 



IG8 Our Winter's Fork. 

ever, tliat he ultimately escaped from the misery in 
which his imprudent marriage threatened to involve 
iiim, by getting into a pretty good mercantile situa- 
tion, in which, I hope, he is now comfortably 
settled. I should have said, that, having no money 
with which to hire labor, all the work on his farm 
had to be done by his own hands, without any aid. 
The trifle he had at first, melted like snow, the two 
having set out with it to make a wedding-trip, in a 
sleigh to a town seventy miles off, from which they 
returned with little but the empty purse. 

A little before Christmas a great time came on — 
the high solemnity of the annual pig-killing for the 
winter. It was bad enough for the poor swine, no 
doubt, but the human detiiils were, in some respects, 
sufficiently ludicrous. The first year we got a 
man to do the killing, and a woman to manage the 
rest ; and, between them, with a razor-blade fixed 
into a piece of wood for a scraper, they won our 
admiration by their skill. I mention it only for an 
illustration it afibrded of the misery to which the 
poor Indians are oflen reduced in the wanter. A 
band of them made their appearance almost as soon 
as we had begun, and hung round, for the sake of 
the entrails and other oftal, till all was over. Of 
course we gave them good pieces, but they were 
hungry enough to have needed the whole, could we 
have spared it. As soon as any thing was thrown 
aside, there was a scramble of both men and women 
for it. Each, as soon as he had secured his share, 



Sufferings of the Indians. 169 

twisted it round any piece of stick that lay near, 
and, al'ter thrusting it tor a minute into the fire, 
where the water was heating for scalthng the p'gs, 
devoured it greedily, filtliy and loathsome as it was. 
They must often be in great want in the cold 
weather, when game is scarce. I was coming from 
the busli one morning, when I saw an Indian tug- 
ging with all his might at something that lay in the 
middle of the road. On nearer approach, it proved 
to be one of our pigs, which had died of some disease 
during the night. The ])Oor fellow had put his 
foot on its side, and was puUing with all his strength 
at the hind-leg to tiy to tear off the ham, but a 
pig's skin is very tough, and though he pulled at it 
till he had crossed and recrossed the road several 
times, he had to give up the battle at last, and leave 
it as he found it. A friend of mine who was lost 
in the w oods for several days, and, in the end, owed 
his deliverance to his fallino; in with a few wicrwams, 
told me that the Indians informed him that they 
were sometimes for three days together without 
food. 



15 



170 Our Ni'ii/hhors. 



CHAPTER X. 

Our neighbors. — Insect, plagues. — Militaiy oflicers' families in tlia 

bunh. — An awkward mistake. — Dr. D nearly shot for a 

oear. — Major M . — Our candles. — Fortunate escape from a 

fatal accident. 

WE used to liavo delightful evenings sometimes, 
when neigliboring settlers came to our house, 
or when we went to their houses. Scanty thongh 
tlie population was, we had lighted on a section of 
the country which had attracted a number of* edu- 
cated and intelligent men, who, with their families, 
made capital society. Down the river Ave had 
Captain G , but he was little respected by rea- 
son of his irregular habits, which, however, might 
be partly accounted for by the effect on his brain 
of a fierce slash on the head which he had got at 
the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo. Then, above us, 
we had, about three miles off, Mr. R , an Eng- 
lish gentleman-farmer, who had found his way to 
the backwoods, after losing much money from one 
cause or anotlier. He was one of the church- 
wardens, and leader of the choir in the Episcopal 
chapel, as it was called, for there is no church es- 
tablishment in Canada; a man, moreover, of much 
geneial information, a good shot, and, what waa 



Insect Plagues. 171 

better, a good Christian. He liad always plenty 
of fresh Loudon newspapers of the stiff Tory class, 
but acceptable to all alike in such a place as St. 
Clair. His house was at the foot of a steep bank, 

and as there were only himself and Mrs. R 

to occujiy it, its size was not so striking as its neat- 
ness. A broad verandah ran alono; the side of it 
next the river, its green color contrasting very 
pleasantly with the whiteness of the logs of the 
house. There were three apartments within ; one 
a sitting-room, the other two bedrooms, one of 
which was always at the disposal of a visitor. Over 
the mantelpiece hung a gun and a rifle, and on it 
stood, as its special ornament, a silver cup given by 
one of the English Cabinet Ministers as the prize 

in a shooting-match in B shire, and won by ?vlr. 

R . Thei'e w^as only one drawback to a visit 

to him, at least in summer, and that was the cer- 
tainty of your getting more than you bargained for 
in the insect way when you went into the barn to 
put up your horse. Fleas are w^onderftdly plentiful 
throughout Canada, but some parts are worse than 
others. A sandy soil seemed to breed them, as the 
mud of the Nile was once thought to breed worms, 

and Mr. R 's barn stood on a spot which the 

fleas themselves might have selected as a favorable 
site for a colony. Under the shelter of his sheds 
they multiplied to a wonderful extent. So incura- 
ble was the evil that it had come to be thought only 
a source of merriment. 



172 Insect Plagues, 

" Ah, you've been at tlie barn, have you? ha, 
ha!" was all the pity you could get for any remark 
on the plentifulness of insect life in these quarters. 
" It isn't half so bad," he added one day, " as the 
preacher over the river, who sat down at the door- 
step of the chapel to look over his notes before ser- 
vice, and had hardly got into the pulpit before he 
found that a whole swarm of ants had got up his 
trousers. You may think how his hands went 
below the bookboard on each side of him, but it 
wouldn't do. He had to tell the congregation that 
he felt suddenly indisposed, and would be back in 
a few moments, which he took advantage of to turn 
the infested garment inside out behind the chapel, 
and after having freed them of his tormentors, went 
up to his post again, and got through in peace." 

" I don't think he was much worse off," struck in 
a friend, " than the ladies are with the grassho])pers. 
The horrid creatiu'es, with their great houky legs, 
and their jumping six feet at a time, make dreadful 
woi'k when they take a notion of springing, just as 
folks are passing over them. I've seen them myself, 
through a thin muslin dress, making their way hither 
and thither in service-time, and there they must 
stay till all is over." 

But I am forgetting the list of our river friends. 

There were, besides Mr. B , four or five miles 

above us, Cajitain W , who had been flag-lieu- 
tenant of a frigate off St. Helena, while Bonaparte 
was a captive there, and had managed to preserve 



Officers' Families in the Bush. 173 
a lock of his soft, liglit brown liair; and Mr. L , 



brother of one of our most eminent English judges, 
and liiinsell' once a midshipman under Captain 
Marryatt ; and Post-Captain V and tlie clergy- 
man — the furthest only ten miles off. There were, 
of course, plenty of others, but they were of a very 
different class — French Canadians, agricultural 
laborers turned farmers, and the like, with very little 
to attract in their society. 

The number of genteel families who had betaken 
themselves to Canada, was, in those days, astonish- 
ing. The fact of the Governors being then mostly 
military men, who offered inducements to their old 
companions in arms who had not risen so high in 
rank as they, led to crowds of that class burying 
themselves in the woods all over the province. I 
dare say they did well enough in a few instances, 
but in very many cases the experiment only brought 
misery upon themselves and their families. Brought 
up in ease, and unaccustomed to work with their 
hands, it was not to be expected that they could 
readily turn mere laborers, which, to be a farmer 
in Canada, is absolutely necessary. I was once 
benighted about forty miles from home, and found 
shelter for the night in a loo;-house on the roadside, 
where I shared a bed on the floor with two laborers, 
the man of the house and his wife sleeping at the 
other end of the room. After breakfast the next 
morning, in grand style, with cakes, " apple sauce" 
in platefuls, bread w^hite as snow, meat, butter, 

15* 



cn-arn, chc^^e, fritters, and colorless green tea of 
the very worse description, I asked them if thejr 
could get any c^mveyance to take me home, as the 
r</n/h were very hf^avy for travelling on foot, from 
tlie depth of the snow, and its slipperiness in the 
Ix-at/jn tra/^-Jc They theravilves, however, had none, 

but I was directed to Captain L 's, close at 

hand, wliere I was told I might find one. The 
liouse hUmmI on a rising ground which was perfectly 
Ixire, all the trees having been cut down for many 
acn^ round. There was not even the pretence of 
garden before the doors, nor any ench^ure, but the 
great shapeless old log-house stood, in all its naked 

roughness, alone. Mrs. L , I found, was an 

elderly lady of elegant manners, and had seen a 
great deal of the world, liaving been abroad with 
her liusl/and's regiment in the Mediterranean and 
elsewhere. She had met Sir Walter Scott at Malta, 
and was full of gossip about liim and sfx;iety gen- 
erally in Krigland and elsewhere. Herdrass struck 
me on entering. It had once been a superb satin, 
but tliat was very many years before. There was 
liardly any tiling to be called furniture in the house, 
a few old wooden cliairs, supplemented by some 
blocks of wood, mere cuts of trees, serving for seats, 
a great deal tahle, and a " grand piano ! " which, 
Mrs. L told inr;, they brjuglit at Vienna, form- 
ing all that cfHild ];e seen. The very dog-irons on 
wliicli their fire rested were broken. Overh<'ad, 1 
ln-ard Icfit pattering on the l(»ose open boards which 



CMiceri Families in the Bwsli 17c 

formed the floor of some apartments, and was pres> 
ently informed that '*the dressing-room'* of the 

M - L was above, and that they would soon 

I/c ^*^.vI.. 2^'ot an inch of carpet, nor any orna- 
ment on the walls, nor anv thing, in fact, to take 
off the forlorn look of emptiness, was in the place ; 
bat the stateliness of language and manner on the 
part of the hostess was the same as if it had been a 
palace. After a time, a lad, the youngest of the 
hoosehcJd, made his appearance, and v. ;^ed 

of my wish to get cm to Bidport as quic. ^ -si- 

ble. He was introduced as having been bom in 
Corfo, and as ^>eaking Greek as fluently as English ; 
bat the poor fellow had a bad chance of ever mak- 
ing much use of his linguistic acquirements in such 
a place. The horse having to be caught, and a 
jimiper to be " fixed," I had a long rest before 
setting oat, and, in the mean time, the sound c£ the 
axe, and of wooden |Hns bCTig driven home, inti- 
mated that the vehicle was being mami&ctared. 

Captain L ^ it appeared, had come there in the 

idea diat the coontrj woold soon be filled up, and 
that, in some magical way, the schI, covered diou^ 
it was with trees, would yield him a living at once 
pientifid and easily procured. But yeais had passed 
<m, die money got tat\as oonunissicm was sfeat, and 
tiiie town^np round Inm was sdll almost a wilder- 
ness. From <»e step to another the &mily sank 

into die deepest want, untfl 3Irs. L was at 

Ustfocoed to — - * zet fiiod, by making up the 



176 Ojficers' Families in the Bush. 

wreck of her I'onner finery into caps and such Hke 
for the wives of the boors around, and hawking 
them about, till she could sell them for flour or 
jjotatoes. It could not have been expected that the 
captain could work, like a laborer — he was totally 
unfit for it, and \v(juld have died over his task, or, 
at best, could have made no living ; and, except 
the stripling who was to drive me, the family con- 
sisted only of daughters. One of these, liowever, 
shortly after my visit, actually managed to make an 
excellent marriage, even in that horrible place ; but 
there was a dash of the ludicrous even in the court- 
ship, from the pinching and straits to which their 
poverty subjected them. The suitor had not as yet 
declared himself, and the fact of his being a gentle- 
man by birth and education, made his frequent visits 
only so much the more embarrassing. One day he 
had come in the forenoon, and stayed so long, that 
it was clear he had no intention of leavino; before 
dinner, while there was literally nothing in the house 
but a few potatoes, which they could not of course 

offer him. What was to be done ? Mrs. L 

and the fair one, her eldest daughter, retired to a 
corner of the room to consult, and, lest any thing 
should be overheard, they spoke in Italian, which 
they never dreamed of the suitor understanding. 
To his unspeakable amusement, the whole perplexity 
of the case fortliwith j)roceeded to unfold itself in 
foreign syllables. " The nasty fellow, what in the 
world wont he go away for?" says the daughter; 



An Awkward Mistake. 177 

*' look at liini tliere, sitting like a fool wlier. people 
are in suck trouble. He ought to know tliat we have 
nothing in the pantry but a few horrid potatoes." 
And so forth. This was quite enough for the 
visitor. He suddenly recollected that he had 
another call to make, and their difficulty about 
him was over in a miiuite. But the marriage 
came off notwithstanding, and a handsome couple 
they made. 

After a time the sleigh was ready, such as it 
was — a rough box, on rough runners, close to the 
ground, with a piece of plank for a seat, and a bed- 
quilt for a wrapper ; and late that night I got home, 
a half-sovereign and his expenses making the poor 
young fellow right glad I had chanced to come his 
way. 

One day I was much diverted by an incident 

narrated to me by jSlr. B . " You know," 

said he, " Dr. D , from Toronto, was riding 

along in a sleigh yesterday on some business or 
other. You are aAvare he is very short and stout, 
and he had on a buffalo coat, and a great fur cap. 
Well, down goes his horse, its feet balled with the 
snow, I suppose ; and tliere it lay, helpless, on its 
side, under the shafts. It was pretty near old 
John Thompson's, the Scotchman. Out gets the 
doctor to help his poor horse by unbuckling its 
straps, and so on, and, being very short-sighted, he 
had to get down his face almost on it. Just at 
this time, Mrs. Thompson chanced to come to the 



178 3Iarriages in the Bush. 

door, and tliere was this apparition, in tlit^ distance, 
in the middle of the road. She instantly made up 
her mind what it was. ' Eh, John, John, bring 
voiu" iiun ; here's a bear devoorin' a horse ! ' But 
they didn't shoot the doctor after all, for the old man 
found out in time who it was." 

But I have to say a little more about some of the 
marriasjes in our neiiihborhood, or not far from it. 
You may easily suj)pose that it is not every one who 

is so lucky as Miss L , of whom I have spoken. 

Those of both sexes who made poor matches were 
much more numerous in those early days. There 

was Kate S , the dau^^liter of a captain in the 

army, an elegant girl, who, for want, I suppose, of 
any other suitor, married a great coarse clown, 
whom her father, had he been living then, would 
hardly have taken to work for them. When he 
died, she married another, his fellow, and ended, 
on his dying, by taking, as her third husband, a 
Avorking tailor, with three or four children. There 

was Major M , who had come to the country 

about the same time as Captain L ; nothing 

could be more wretched than the a])pearance of his 
house on the road-side, Avitli the great trees almost 
close to it, himself an elderly man, and his only 
children two daughters. I remember passing on 
horseback one frightful morning, when the roads 
were at the worst, and finding him on the top of a 
prostrate log, trying to cut off enough for his fire. 
His daufrhter finallv married a small tradesman in 



Scarcity of Candles. 170 



a 



neighboring town ; and the major thankfully 
went to close his days with his son-in-law, in far 
greater comfort than he hud known for a long time. 
Young fellows married girls whom their mothers 
would iiardly luive taken for servants in England ; 
partly, I su})pose, because there were not in some 
parts many to choose from, and partly, no doubt, 
because their position as farm-laborers, which they 
had really come to be, had lowered their tastes. I 
remember seeing a young man come out of a village 
tavern with a short black pipe in his mouth, a long 
beech rod in his hand, and a blue blouse, surmounted 
by a wretched straw hat, for his dress, his whole 
appearance no better than that of any laborer round. 
He was driving an ox-wagon, but, before starting, 
a lady at my side in the stage, which had stopped 
at the tavern, accosted him, and they entered freely 
into conversation together. He turned out to be a 

son of Colonel , who lived in a Avretched log-hut 

not far distant. He told his friend that he hoped 
tr get a good birth that summer as purser on one of 
the small lake steamers ; and I hope he succeeded. 
Meanwhile, he w^as mixing with the herd of "bush- 
whackers," as Canadians say, at the tavern fire, 
himself almost one of them. 

We had one drawback in the long winter nights 
— there was often a great scarcity of candles. 
One was hghted at supper, but it was put out im- 
mediately after the meal ; and we had to sit at the 
Light of the ni'e, which we made as bright as possible 



180 Air-holes in the Ice. 

by a supply of resinous pine, from time to time. 
We, sometimes, had enough of candles. Indeed, but 
I think Ave were more often without them. Some 
lard In a saucer, with a ])iece of rag fur a wick, 
was one of our j)lans in addition to the pine, when 
we wished to see our way to our beds. 

There was very nearly a fatal accident down the 
river one day, occasioned by a sleigh, and the folks 
In it, with the horses as well, breaking through an 
air-hole In the Ice, that Is, a spot at which the air 
imprisoned below the ice had found its escape, leav- 
ing the surface only very slightly frozen. How 
they got out I hardly know, but the ice round the 
hole was quite strong ; and after one of the party 
had clambered upon It, he managed to fish out the 
rest, who had clung to the sleigh. Even the horses 
were saved ; but the method taken with them seem- 
ed to me as hazardous as It was strange : ropes 
were passed round their necks as quickly as possible, 
and when by this means they were half choked, 
they floated so high that they were got out with 
comparative ease. 



Spiing. 181 



CHAPTER XI. 

** Now Spring returns." — Sugar-making. — Bush pBalmody. — 
Bush preaching. — Worship under dilHcukies. — A clerical INIrs. 
Partington. — Biology. — A ghost. — "It slipii good." — Squat- 
ters. 

BY the middle of Marcli the sun liad begun, in 
the very open places, to show some power, 
especially in the little spots sheltered from the cold 
by the woods, Avliere his beams found an entrance 
to the soil. Here and there, traces of the bare 
earth began to reappear, and the green points of the 
succulent plants were preparing to burst out into 
their first leaves ; the buds, too, on some of the 
trees, were distinctly visible, but there was a long 
time still before us, between these first promises of 
spring and their actual realization. The last snow- 
fall came in the middle of April, and, between that 
time and the first of May, the weather could hardly 
be said to be settled into spring. But already, to- 
wards the third week of March, the birds had made 
up their minds to come back to us, in expectation 
of the opening leaf. Flocks of blue jays, in their 
beautiful plumage, blue set off with white and 
black, flitted from the top of one of the lower treea 

16 



182 Siif/ar-malcing. 

to another, chattering incessantly. Everything 
had been desohite around us for long, and now to 
see such sijrns of" returnino; Avarmth and verdure 
was unspeakably delightful. 

With the first opening of s])ring, and wliile yet the 
snow lay thick in the fields and the woods, the sea- 
son of maple sugar-making commenced. It seemed 
extraordinary to me for a long time that sugar 
should be got in quantities from a great forest tree, 
the modest sugar-cane having been always in my 
mind the only source of it — excejit, indeed, the 
sugar-beet, by the growth of which Napoleon tried 
to make France furnish her own sugar, instead of 
having to buy English colonial sugar fi'om any of 
the European ports. But a great quantity is made, 
in Canada and the United States, from the maple, 
both for sale and home use, a vast amount being 
eaten by the native-born Canadians as a sweetmeat, 
just as we eat candy ; and very little else is known 
in many parts of the backwoods for household pur- 
poses. The bests days for sugar-making are the 
bright ones, after frosty nights, the sap running then 
most freely. The first thing we had to do with 
our " bush," which is the name given to the ma- 
ples preserved for sugar-making, was to see that 
each tree was provided with a trough, which we 
made out of pine, or some other soft wood, by cut- 
ting a log into lengths of perhaps two feet, then 
splitting each in two, and hollowing the flat side so 
that it would hold about a bucketful of sap. We 



Sugar-making. 1 83 

next took narrow pieces of wood, al)ont a foot long, 
and made spouts of tliem Avitli a gouge, after wliieli 
we made a cut in each tree, with tlie axe, three or 
four inches long and an inch deep, in a slanting 
direction, adding another straight cut at the lower 
end of it with the gouge, that there might be no 
leaking, and sinking a hole for a spout, where they 
met ; the gouge that cut the spouts making the hole 
into which they were thrust. Below these spouts 
the troughs were set to collect the sap, which was 
carried as often, as they were nearly full, to another, 
of enormous dimensions, close to the fire. These 
colossal troughs are simply huge trunks of trees 
hollowed out for the purpose ; ours would have 
held fifty barrels. The emptv'ing into this was 
made every morning and evening until a large 
quantity had been gathered, and then the boiling 
began in large " kettles," as they are called, made 
for the purpose, and suspended over the blazing fire 
from a stout pole, resting on two forked branches 
thrust into the earth at each side. The sap once in 
the kettles has a hard time of it : the fires are kept 
up in royal brightness for days together, not being 
allowed to die out even during the night. 

It was a very pleasant time with us, though it 
was hard work, and what with the white snow, the 
great solemn trees, the wild figures dancing hither 
and thither, and our loud merriment, it Avas very 
striking when the evenings had set in. One of the 
kettles was chosen for " sugaring off,'' ^^^ ^^^^ ^^' 



184 SiKjar-maldng. 

])Oci;illy assiduous watchiug. Not a inomeut's rest 
could its uuCortunato coutcnts get fi'oni tlie iucessant 
boiling we kept u]) ; fresh sap being added as often 
as it st't'ined to be wttinij too dry. Jn its ra^^e, the 
sap would every now and then make desj^erate et- 
i'orts to boil over ; but we were on the watch for 
this also, Mild as soon as it manifestt'd any intention 
of the kind, we rubbed round the inside of the ket- 
tle with a j)ieee of i)ork-l"at, beyond the limits of 
which it would no more pass than if it had been in- 
side some magic circle. My sisters were as busy as 
we at every ])art of the process, and their poor 
dresses showed abundant and lasting memorials of 
their labors, in the rents made in them by the 
bushes. What we were all like, from head to foot, 
al'tei" a time, may be more easily conceived than de- 
scribed. (Jur smudged faces, and sugary, slopjty 
clothes, made us all laugh at one another. 

As the sap grew thicker with the incessant boiling, 
another element was added to our amusement, in the 
stickiness of every thing we handled. If we leaned 
against a log at hand we were fast bound ; and the 
pots, pans, ladles, buckets, axe-handles, troughs — 
every thing we touched, indeed, seemed to part from 
us only with regret. We were fortunate in having 
no young children amongst us, as they would, of 
course, have been in the thick of the fray, and have 
become half-crystallized before all was over. The 
" clearing olf " was managed by pouring in beaten 
eggs when the sap was beginning to get thick. This 



Suyar-maJcing. 1-85 

Bervcd to bring all the impurities at once to the top, 
so that we conld readily skim them off. Several m- 
crenious ways had been told us of knowing when 
the process was complete. One was by bormg 
small holes in a flat piece of wood, and blowmg on 
it after dipping it into the syrup ; the sugar going 
throu..l> the holes in long bubbles, if it were boiled 
enou<d.. Another plan was to put a little on the 
snow" when, if it got stiff, it was time to pour all 
out Every thing that would hold it was then, 
forthwith, i.ut into requisition, after having been 
well greased to keep the sugar from stickmg, and, 
presently, we had cakes, loaves, lumps, blocks, 
every shape, in fact, of rich brown-colored sugar 
of our own making. Some, which we wanted to 
crystallize, was put into a barrel, and stirred while 
coolincr, which effectually answered the purpose. 
Small holes bored in the bottom made the sugar 
thus obtained whiter than the rest, by allowmg the 
molasses mingled with it to drain off. We kept 
some sap for vinegar, which we made by simply 
boiling three or four pailfuls until reduced to one, 
and corking this up in a keg for a time. 

For the first and second years the poorer settlers 
have a dreadful job of it in the sugar bush, from 
not having had sufficient time to fence it m from 
the cattle, which, from their intrusion, area constant 
annoyance. They poke their great noses into every 
thin.r, and one taste of the sap is very much to them 
what thev say the taste of blood is to a tiger, m 



16 * 



186 Sugar-making. 

stimulating their thirst for more. In they come, 
braving all risks for a sip of their much-loved nec- 
tar ; out go tlie spouts from the trees, over go the 
buckets of sap, and, worse than all, if the brutes 
succeed in drinking any quantity, they are very 
often seriously, if not mortally injured, their iiidul- 
gence acting on them very much as clover does, 
blowing out their stomachs, and even bursting them. 
Another annoyance, at first, is the not having had 
time to cut out the " under brush," so as to make 
it possible to take a sleigh, with barrels on it, from 
tree to tree, to collect the sap, with the help of oxen, 
and hence, having to carry bucket by bucket to 
the " kettles," often from a considerable distance, 
which is no trifling task, over wet snow, and rough 
ground, thick with every obstiniction. We were 
fortunate in this respect, having been warned in 
time, so that every thing was as light as such work 
can be. 

The sugaring-ofF day was rather a festivity with 
us, as we followed the custom of a good many of 
our neighbors, and invited some young folks to come 
to a carnival on the warm sugar, which is very 
nice, though I should not care to eat as much at a 
time as some of our visitors did. The cpiantity of 
sap which a single tree yields is astonishing. 1 
think some gave not less than fifty gallons, and the 
loss of it seemed to do them good rather than harm. 
The older and stronger tlie trees the better the sap, 
and the more abundant — a peculiarity which it 



Bush Psalmody. 187 

would be well for each of us to be able to have said 
of his own life as it advanced. The Indians must 
have been acquainted with the pi'operty of the ma- 
ple for a2;es ; stone sugar-making utensils, of their 
manufacture, comprising stone troughs and long 
stone spouts, hollowed out and pointed for sticking 
into the trees, liaving often been found in some dis- 
tricts. The few who still survive keep up the hab- 
its of their ancestors in this, as in other resj^ects, 
numbers of them offering sugar which they have 
made, for barter, eacli spring. 

Happening to be back in the bush one Sunday, I 
stopped to hear the Presbyterian minister preach ; 
he being expected to come there that afternoon. A 
log school-house was made to serve for a chapel — a 
dark, wretched affair, into which, gradually, about 
seventy or eighty people managed to cram them- 
selves. The singing was conducted by an old 
German, whose notions of music were certainly far 
behind those of his countrymen generallj'. The 
number of grace notes he threw in was astound- 
ing ; but the peoj)le joined as well as they could, 
using their powerful lungs with so much vigor, and 
in such bad time and tune, as to be irresistibly 
ludicrous. As to keeping abreast of each other 
through a verse or a line, it seemed never to occur 
to them. A great fellow would roar himself out of 
breath, with his face up to the ceiling and his mouth 
open, hke a hen drinking, and then stop, ir.ake a 
swallow to recover himself, or, perhaps, spit on the 



188 Worship under Difficulties. 

floor, and begin again where he left off, in totai 
disrecrard of the fact that the otliers were half a line 
ahead. Wlio can chronicle the number of " re- 
peats " of each line, or portion of one ? And as 
to the articulation of the words, who could have 
jjuessed their meanino; from the uncouth sounds he 
heard ? The windows were very small ; and, when 
filled with people, the place was too dark for print 
to be legible, so that, notwithstanding the excessive 
cold, the minister had to stand outside tlie door 
through the whole service. About the middle of 
the sermon a brief interruption took place, fi'om a 
freak on the ])art of the stove, which stood in the 
middle of the room, and was of the common kind, 
with the sides held togetlier by a raised edge on the 
top and bottom. As usual in all Canadian churches 
and meetings, some one was stuffing this contrivance 
full of wood while the sermon was going on, when, 
in a moment, the top got a trifle too much lifted up, 
and down came stove-pipe, stove, fire and wood, 
in one grand rumble, to the ground. As the floor 
chanced to be made only of roughly-smoothed 
planks, with great gaps between each, and the car- 
penters' shavings and other inflammable matter 
were clearly visible below, the danger of the whole 
structure catching fire was great ; but the congre- 
gation were equal to the emergency. A number 
of men were out in a moment, to return, the next, 
with great armfuls of snow, which they heaped on 
the burninor mound in such profusion that every 



WbrsJiip under Difficulties. 189 

spark of fire was extinguislied in a few minutes. 
The bottom of the stove was tlien prepared again 
for tlie reception of tlie sides, the top was once more 
fitted on, the stove-pipes put in their place, the rub- 
bish thrust into its proper abode inside, and, by the 
help of a few whittlings made on the spot, a fi'esh 
fire was roaring in a very short time, enabling the 
minister to conclude in peace and comfort. 

I have seen strange incidents in backwoods wor- 
ship. One church happened to be built on rather 
high posts, leaving an open space of from two to 
to three feet below, between the floor and the ground. 
Into this shady retreat a flock of sheep, headed by 
the bell-wether, had made its entrance one Sunday 
morning while we were at worship overhead, and 
presently tinkle, tinkle, tinkle went the bell, now 
in single sounds, and then, when the wearer perhaps 
shook some fly oflf its ears, in a rapid volley. No- 
body stirred. The clergyman alone seemed incom- 
moded ; but no one thought he was particularly so, 
till, all at once, he stopped, came down from the 
pvdpit, went out and drove ofl'the intrudex's, after 
which he recommenced as if nothing had occurred. 
At another place, at the communion, to my astonish- 
ment, instead of the ordinary service, a black bottle 
and two tumblers were brought out, with all due 
Bolemnity, as substitutes. 

We had a sample of the strength of female Mitel- 
lect, one winter, in an old woman, who visited the 
next village to preach on the Prophecies, and drew 



190 A Clerical Mrs. Partington. 

the whole of the humbler population of the neighbor- 
hood to hear her. Qrammar, of course, was utter- 
ly disregarded ; she knew the obscurer books of 
Scnj)ture by heart, and, having a tongue more tlian 
usually voluble, and an assurance that nothing could 
abash, she did her best to enlighten the crowd on 
no mean topics. Using her left arm as a chrono- 
logical measure, she started, with Daniel, at the 
elbow, and reached the consummation of all things 
at her finger-ends, which she figuratively called 
" the jumping-off place." Some of her similes, as 
reported through the township, amused me exceed- 
ingly as samples of what was just suited to please 
the majority of her hearers. " There's no more 
grace, sir, in your heart than there's blood in a tur- 
nip," washer apostrophe to some imaginary sinner. 
" Them siimers," she added — " them hardened 
sinners, needs to be done to, as you do to a old black 
tobaky pipe — throw 'em into the fire, and burn 'em 
— then they'll be vvite." Such wandering lumi- 
naries are, for the most part, importations from the 
States, where they abound almost beyond belief. 
Another of these learned expositors visited us for 
tlie purpose of giving lectures on " Biology," by 
which he meant the effects produced on his patients 
by looking at large wooden buttons which he carried 
with him ; a continued stare at them for a time 
making the parties become, as he averred, com- 
pletely subject, even in their thoughts, to his will. 
He would tell one he was a pig, and all manner of 



Biology. 191 

Bwinish sounds and actions followed. Anotlier wag 
assured he could not rise from liis seat, and forth- 
with appeared glued to the spot, despite his most 
violent efforts to get up. Whether there was any- 
actual tnith in the exhibition, through the ])ower 
of some suhtle mesmeric laws of which we know 
little, I cannot say. Some thought there was; 
others, that the whole was a joke of some young 
fellows who wished to create fun at the expense of 
the audiences. But the exhibitor himself was a 
real curiosity, in his utter illiterateness and match- 
less assurance. He had seen somebody else exhibit- 
ing in this way, and, like a shrewd Yankee, thought 
he might make a little money by doing the same. 
I wished to cain some information from him on the 
subject, if he had any to give, and waited, after the 
crowd had separated, to ask him about it ; but all 
I could get from him was the frank acknowledg- 
ment that " this here profession was not the one he 
follered ; he had jist been a-coming to Canedy 
after some lumber — he dealt in lumber, he did — 
and calc'lated that he might as well's no make his 
expenses by a few licturs." I almost laughed out- 
r/'sht at this candid avowal, and left him. 

One day, Louis de Blanc, an old Canadian 
voyager, who had left his arduous avocation and 
iiettled near our place long before we came, anu^sed 
me by a story of an apparition he had seen the 
night betore in passing the graveyard at the little 
Catholic chapel on the roadside, two miies above 



192 A Ghost. 

us. It was a little plot of ground, neatly fenced 
round with wooden piekets, with the wild flowers 
growing rank and high among the few lonely graves, 
— some tall black crosses here and there outtopping 
them. " You know Michel Cauchon died last 
Aveek ; well, he always had a spite at me ; and, 
sure enough, last night about twelve o'clock, as 1 
was passing the churchyard, didn't I see his ghost 
running across the road in the shape of a rabbit. 
Ah ! how I sweated as I ran home ! I never stopped 
till I got over my fence and safe in bed." The 
poor rabbit that had caused the panic would, no 
doubt, have been astonished, could it have learned 
the terror it had inspired. 

It was. most astonishing to see what kind of food 
some of these old Canadians relished — at least, it 
was so to me. One day, having gone over to Le 
Blanc's on some errand, I found his son Louis, a 
boy of twelve or fourteen, with the handle of a fry- 
ing-pan in one hand and a spoon in the other, 
drinking down mouthful after mouthful of the melted 
fat left after frying pork, and, on my silently 
looking at him, was met by a delighted smile and a 
smack of his lips, accompanied by a rapturous 
assurance of, " Ah ! it slips good." Fat, however, 
is only another name for carbon, or, it may be said, 
charcoal, and carbon is needed in large quantities 
to maintain an adequate amount of animal heat in 
the inhabitants of cold climates, and to this must be 
attributed their craving for grossly fat food. Cap- 



" It slijjs good.'' 193 

tain Cochrane, in his " Pedestrian Tour to Behring's 
Straits," shows vis that poor Louis Lc Blanc was in 
this respect far outdone by the Siberian tribes Hving 
near the Arctic Ocean, who relished nothing more 
than a tallow candle, and would prolong the enjoy- 
ment of one by pulling the wick, once and again, 
through their hall-closed teeth, that no particle of 
the grease might be lost. Indeed, my friend Captain 

L told me, that in the Arctic regions, his men 

had acquired a similar relish for " moulds" and 
" dips," and could eat a candle as if it had been 
sugai -stick. The Esquimaux, as we all know, live 
on the nauseous blubber of the whale, cutting it otf 
in long strips, which, Sydney Smith facetiously 
avers, they hold over them by the one hand, and 
guide down by the other, till full to the mouth, 
when they cut it off at the lips. The quantity of 
butcher's meat eaten by every one during winter 
in Canada is astonishing. Even the bush people, 
who, when living in England hardly ever saw it, 
eat it voraciously three times a-day, with a liberal 
allowance of grease each time. What oceans of 
mutton-oil I have seen floating round chops, in some 
of their houses ! How often have I dechned the 
oflt'er of three or four tablespoonfuls of pork-oil, as 
" gi'^vy" or " sauce" to the pork itself! Yet it 
*' slips good,*' apparently, M'ith the country popu- 
lation generally. The quantity of butter these good 
folks consume is no less liberal. On the table of a 

poor log-house they never think of putting down a 
17 



194 Squatters. ♦ 

lump weighing less tlian a pound, at win ;h every 
one hacks as he likes with his own knife. But they 
need it all, and it is a mercy they have it, to help 
them to withstand the effects of extreme cold and 
hard work. The poorer classes in towns, who have 
no land on which to raise animal food, and little 
money with which to buy it, must suffer vei*y 
severely. 

There were a few " squatters " along the river 
here and there — that is, men who had settled on 
spots of the wilderness without having bought them, 
or having acquired any legal rights, but were con- 
tent to use them while undisturbed in possession, 
and to leave their clearino-s when owners came for- 
ward. They are always, in such cases, allowed 
the value of their improvements, and as, meanwhile, 
they hve entirely rent free, their position is far 
from wholly disadvantageous. In the early days of 
the colony, indeed, there was no other plan. The 
few first comers could hardly be any thing but 
squatters, as the country was all alike an uncleared 
wilderness, and there is no inducement to pay mon- 
ey for any one spot, had they possessed the means. 
Some of the French famihes in our neio;hborhood 
had been settled on the same farm for generations, 
and had at last actually bought their homesteads at 
the nominal price demanded by government ; but 
the squatters were not yet extinct, though they 
might at one time have had their choice of the 
richest soil at something like fourpence an acre. 



Squatters. 195 

A friend of mine told me, that "vvitliin a period of 
about thirty years, he had seen kind sold again and 
again at no higher price. On the same lot as that 
which boasted the Catholic chapel, one — a lonely 
survivor of the class — had taken up his abode, 
many years before our time, building a log-house 
for himself, on the smallest possible scale, a few 
yirds from the river. How he could live in such a 
place seemed strange. It was not more than some 
ten or twelve feet in length, and the upper part of 
it was used as his barn. Here, all alone, poor 
Fapineau had lived — no one I ever met could tell 
how lonir. There was no house or buildinfr in 
sight; no one ever seemed to go near him, nor 
did he ever visit any neighbor. He was his own 
cook, housekeeper, washerwoman, fann-laborer, 
every thing. I often wish I had tried to find out 
more about him. We used, when we passed along 
the river edge, to see him mowing his patch of hay 
for liis cow, or weeding his i)lot of tobacco, for he 
grew what he required for his own use of this as of 
other things ; and he was always the same silent, 
harmless hermit of the woods. It was a strange 
kind of life to lead. How different from that of a 
Londoner, or the life of the inhabitant of any large 
community ! Yet he must surely have been con- 
tented, otherwise he would have left it and gone 
where he could have found some society 



196 Bush Magistrates. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Biish magistrates. — Indian forest guides. — Senses quickenel by 
necessity. — Urealiing up of the ice. — Depth of the frost. — A 
grave in winter. — A ball. — A holiday coat. 

IN those clays our local dignitaries were as primi- 
tive as the country itself. On the river, indeed, 
the magistrates were men of education, but in the 
bush, the majority possessed no qualifications for 
acting the part of justices. One of them had the 
misfortune one winter to have a favorite dog killed 
by some mischievous person, and feeling excessively 
indignant at the loss, boldly announced that he Avas 
prepared to pay a reward to any party who would 
give such information respecting the oflPender as 
should lead to his conviction. The wording; and 
spelling of this proclamation were alike remarkable. 
It ran thus : " Whereas sum nutrishus vilain or 
vilains has killed my dog Seesur, I ereby ofer a re- 
ward of five dolars to any one that will mak none 
the ofender or ofenders." He never got any bene- 
fit from his efforts, but the document, in his own 
handwriting, hung for a long time on the wall of 
the next tavern, where all could see it, and not a 
few laughed at its peculiarities. 



Indian Forest Chiides. 197 

I was much struck by an instance, wliicli a long 
journey, about this time, through the woods, gave, 
of the wonderful faculty possessed by the Indians 
in going straight from point to point across the 
thickest forest, where there is apparently nothing 
to direct their course. Having occasion to return 
nearly twenty miles from a back township to which 
the roads had not yet been opened, and not liking 
to take the circuit necessary if I desired to find oth- 
ers, I thought myself fortunate in meeting with an 
Indian, who, for a small reward, offered to take me 
liome by tlie nearest route. When I asked him how 
he guided himself, he could say very little, but hinted, 
in his broken English, about one side of the trees 
being rougher than the other, though I could detect 
little or no difference on most of them. If it had 
been in Nova Scotia, I could have understood his 
reasonino;, for there the side of the trees tOAvard the 
north is generally hung with a long gray beard of 
moss, fi'om the constant moisture of the climate ; but 
in Canada, it would take very sharp eyes to tell 
which was the northern and which the other sides 
from any outward sign. They must have some- 
thing more to guide them, I think, though what it 
is I cannot conceive. The senses become wonder- 
fully acute when called into extraordinary service. 
I have read of prisoners hi dark dungeons, who 
got at last to be able to see the spiders moving about 
in their webs in the corners of their cells ; and blind 
people often attain such a wonderful delicacy of 

17* 



touch as to be able to detect things by differences 
so slight as to be imperceptible by others. The ta- 
cihty with which they read the lx>oks prepareil for 
them with raised letters, by simply passing their 
finger? over the surflices, is well known. The 
sailor can discern the appearance of distant land, or 
the Arab the approach o£ a camel over the desert, 
when others would suspect neitlier. An Indian can 
smell the fire of a ** camp," as they call the place 
where a party rests for the night, when a European 
can detect nothing. There may, therefore, be some- 
thing which can be noticed on the trees, by those 
who pass their whole hves among them, which otli- 
ers are unable to discover. The Indians derive a 
great advantage finom the skill they possess in track- 
ing tlie footsteps of men or animals over all soits of 
ground, and among dry leaves. This faculty they 
are enabled to acquire owing to the fact that the 
forests in North America are generally oj^en enough 
midemeath to offer easy passage ; and, moreover, 
that tlie soil is little more on the surface than a car- 
pet of rotten wood and decaying leaves, which easily 
receives the impression of footsteps, and retains it 
for a length of time. The moss on the fallen trees 
is another great help in tracking the course of either 
man or beast through tlie forest ; for neither the one 
nor the other can well make their way over them 
without rubbing off portions here and there. Xor 
is the mere fact of the passage in a particular dii^ection 
all that an Indian can detect firom the traces on the 



BreaMng up of tli^ Ica. 199 

8ofl or vegetation. They reason acutely from things 
which others would overlook, and aometimes surprise 
one as nrach by the minute and yet correct conchi- 
sions they draw respecting what they have not seen, 
as tlie Arab did the Cadi of Bagdad, when he de- 
scribed a camel and its load which had passed, and 
whose track he had seen ; maintaining that the camel 
was lame of a foot — because he had noticed a dif- 
ference in the length of the steps ; that it wanted a 
tooth, because the herbage it }iad cropped had a piece 
left in the middle of each bite ; and, also, that the 
load consisted of honey on one side and ghee on the 
other, because he had noticed drops of each on the 
path as he went along. My Indian made no hesi- 
tation at any part of our journey, keeping as straight 
as possible, and yet he was forced perpetually to 
wind and turn round trees standing directly in our 
jjath, and to vault over fallen logs, which he did 
with a skill that I in vain tried to imitate. 

About the beginning of April the ice in the river 
was cretting very watery, the strength of the sun 
melting the surfece till it lay covered with pools in 
every direction. Yet people persisted in cmeang, 
loner after I should have thought it dangerous in the 
extreme. It seemed as if it would hold togethCT 
for a long time yet, but the heat was silently doing 
its work on it, and bringing the hour of its final 
disappearance every moment nearer. It had be- 
come a wearisome sight when looked at day after 
day for months, and we all longed for the open rira 



200 Breaking up of the Ice. 

once more. At last, about the sixteenth of the 
montli, on rismg in tlie morning, to our deliglit, the 
wliole surface of the ice was seen to be broken to 
pieces. A strong wind whicli had been blowing 
through the night had caused such a motion in the 
water as to split into fragments the now-weakened 
sheet that bound it. It was a wondeifully beauti- 
ful sight to look at tlie bright blue water sparkling 
once more in the light, as it" in restless gladness after 
its long imprisonment, the richness of its color con- 
trasting strikingly with tlie whiteness of the ice 
which floated in snowy floes to tlie south. At first 
there was only the broken covering of the river, 
but, very soon, immense quantities of ice came sail- 
ing down from the Upper Lakes, jammed together 
one piece on another, in immense heaps, in every 
variety of confusion, the upturned edges fringed 
with prismatic colors. I found that the preparation 
for this grand upbreaking had been much more 
complete than I had suspected, from looking at it 
from a distance ; the whole of what had appeared 
quite solid having been so affected by the sun, 
that, whichever way you looked at it, long rows 
of air-bubbles showed themselves through it, show- 
ing that there was little power left in it to resist 
any outward force. The final rupture, though ap- 
parently so sudden, had been, in fact, steadily pro- 
gressing, until, at last, the night's storm had been 
sufficient to sweep away in an hour what had pre- 
viously stood the wildest rage of winter. I have 



Depth of the Frost. 201 

often, since, thouolit tliut it gave a very good ilia* 
tration of the gradually increasing influence of all 
efforts for good, and of their certain ultimate triumph 
— each day's failhiul work doing so much toward 
it, tiiough the progress may for long be impercepti- 
ble, until at last, when we hardly expect it, the 
opposing forces give way, as it were, at once, and 
forthwith leave only a scattered and retreating wreck 
behind. Gradual preparation, and apparently sud- 
den results, are the law in all things. The Refor- 
mation, though accomplished as if at a blow, had been 
silently made possible through long previous gener- 
ations ; and when the idolaters in Tahiti threw away 
their hideous gods, the salutary change was only 
eifected by the long-continued labors of faithful 
missionaries for many years before — labors, which, 
to many, must, at the time, have seemed fruitless 
and vain. 

The depth to which the frost had penetrated the 
ground was amazing. I had already seen proof of 
its being pretty deep, on the occasion of a grave 
having to be dug in a little spot of ground attached 
to a chapel at some distance from us, for the burial 
of a poor neighbor's wife who had died. The 
ground was deeply covered with snow, which had 
to be cleared away before they could begin to dig 
the grave, and the soil was then found to be so bard 
that it had to be broken up with pickaxes. Even 
m that earlier part of the winter the frost was near- 
ly two feet deep, and it was a touching thing to see 



202 A Grave in Winter. 

the frozen lumps of eartli ^\]li(•ll luul to be thrown 
down on the coffin. Any thing hke beating tlie 
grave smooth, or shaping it into the Immble monnd 
which is so famihar to us at home, as tlie token of 
a form hke our own lying beneath, was impossible; 
there could only be a rough approach to it till spring 
should come to loosen the iron-bound earth. 
Strangely enough, there were two funerals from the 
same household within the same month, and the two 
graves were made side by side. The mother had 
died just as she was about to start for the house of 
her dau;ihter-in-law who was ailino;, a hundred and 
twenty miles off, and the object of her beautiful 
tendemess had herself died before the same month 
luul ex])ired, leaving it as her last wish that she 
should be laid beside her friend who had departed 
so lately. It was now the de])th of winter — the 
Arctic cold made every thing like rock — the 
sleighing was at its best, and thus the joui'ney was 
made comparatively easy. Laying the coffin in a 
long sleio-h and coverino; it with straw, and takins: 
a woman with him to carry a young infant to his 
friends to nurse, the husband set out with his ghast- 
ly load. There was no fear of delaying the burial 
too long, for the corpse was frozen stiff, and might 
have been kept above ground for weeks without 
the risk of its thawing. When I used to pass after- 
wards in summer time, the two graves, which were 
the first in the burial-ground, wore a more cheerful 
aspect than they had done at first ; the long beauti- 



Bejnh of the Frost. 208 

fill grass waving softly over tlieni, and wild flowers 
borne thither by the winds or by birds, mingling 
their rich colors with the shades of m'oen around. 

I think the soil must eventually have been frozen 
at least a yard down, if we may judge by its effects. 
Great gatc-]:>osts were heaved up by the expansion 
of the earth, when the thaw turned the ice into 
water ; for, though ice is lighter than water, it forms 
a solid mass, whereas the swelling moisture pushes 
the particles of earth apart. I have seen houses 
and walls cracked from top to bottom, and fences 
thrown down, from the same cause ; indeed, it is 
one of the remilarlv recurrino; troubles of a Canadian 
farmer's year. If any thing is to stand permanently, 
the foundations must be sunk below the reach of the 
frost. It is very much better, however, in Canada 
than in the icy wilderness to the north of it. Round 
Hudson's Bay the soil never thaws completely, so 
that if you thrust a pole into the earth in the warm 
season, you may feel the frozen ground a few feet 
beneath. It is wonderful that any vegetation can 
grow under such circumstances, but the heat of the 
sun is so oTcat, that even over the everlastino; ice- 
bed, some crops can be raised in the short fiery 
summer. Indeed, even on the edge of the great 
Arctic Ocean, along the coasts of Siberia, and on 
some spots of the American shore, the earth brought 
down by rivers and strewn by their floods over the 
hills of ice, is bright with vegetation for a short part 
of each year — in this respect not unlike stony and 



204 A Ball. 

cold natures wliicli liave yet, over tlieir unmelting 
liardness, an elHorescence of good — the skin of 
virtue spread, as old Thomas Fuller says, like a 
mask over the face of vice. 

During the winter a great ball was given across 
the river, in a large barn, which had been cleared for 
the purpose, the price of the tickets being fixed at 
a dollar, which included an abundant supper. It 
was intimated, however, that those who had no 
money might pay in " dicker " — a Yankee word 
for barter ; a bundle of shingles, a certain number 
of eggs, or so much weight of butter, being held 
equivalent to the money, and securing a ticket. I 
was not present myself, never having much a])prov- 
ed of these mixed parties, but the young folks round 
were in a state of great excitement about it, some 
of them coining as far as fifteen miles to attend it. 
They went ])ast m sleigh loads, dashing over the 
ice on the river as if it had been solid ground. 
The girls were, of course, in the height of fashion, 
as they understood it; some of them exposing them- 
selves in ridiculously li";ht clothino; for the terrible 
season of the year, in the belief, no doubt, that it 
made them look the nicer. Fashions in those days 
did not travel fast, and what was in its full glory 
on the river, had been wellnio-h forgotten where it 
took its rise, like the famous Steenkirk stock, of 
which Addison says, that it took eleven years to 
travel from London to Newcastle. The taste 
shown was often v^ery praiseworthy, but sometimes, 



A HoV'hiy Coat., 205 

It must be admitted, a little out of the way, I have 
seen girls with checked or figured white muslin 
dresses, wearing a black petticoat underneath to 
show off the beauties of the pattern ; and I knew 
of one case where a young woman, who was en- 
grossed in the awful business of buying her wedding 
dress, could get nothing to please her until she 
chanced to sec, hanging up, a great white window 
curtain, with birds and Huwers all over it, which she 
instantly pronounced to be the very thing she want- 
ed, and took home in triumph! There was one 
gentleman's coat on the river which might have 
formed a curiosity in a museum, as a relic of days 
gone by. The collar stood up round the ears in such 
a great roll that the shoulders and head seemed set 
on^'each other, and, as to the tails, they crossed each 
other like a martin's wings, somewhere about the 
knees. But it was in a good state of preservation, 
and, for aught I know, may be the hohday pride of 
its owner to this hour. 

It took a week or two for the last fragments of 
ice to disappear from the river, fresh floes coming 
down day after day from the lakes beyond, where 
spring sets in later. As they floated past I often 
used to think what a mercy it was, that while water 
gets heavier as it grows cold, until it comes to the 
freezing-point, it becomes lighter the moment it be- 
gins to'freeze, and thus rises to the surface, to form 
ice there, instead of at the bottom. If it continued 

18 



206 Why Ice floats. 

as heavy after, as it was immediately before, the 
rivers and lakes would speedily become solid masses 
of ice, which could by no possibility be melted. 
The arrangement by which this is avoided, is a 
remarkable illustration of the Divine wisdom, and a 
striking proof of the contrivance and design which 
is in all God's works. 



WUd Leeks, 207 



CHAPTER XUl. 

Wild leeks. - Spring birds.- Wilsous poem on the blue binl. - 
Downy woodpeckers. - Passenger pigeons.- Their numbers. - 
Roosting places. - The frogs. - Bull frogs. - Tree frogs. - Fly- 
ing squirrels. 

BY the first of May the fields were beghmmg to 
put on their spring beauty. But in Canada, 
where vegetation, once fairly started, makes a won- 
derfully rapid progress, it is not like that of England, 
where spring conies down, as the poet tells us — 

" Veiled in a shower of shadowing roses," 

and a long interval occurs between the first indica- 
tions of returning warmth, and the fuller proof of 
it in the rejoicing green of the woods and earth. 
The wild leeks in the bush seemed to awaken from 
their winter's sleep earlier than most other things, 
as we found to our cost, by the cows eating them 
and spoiling their milk and butter, by the strong 
disagreeable taste. In fivct, both were abommable 
for weeks together, until other attractions in vaccine 
diet had superseded those of the leeks. It was de- 
liahtful to look at the runnels of crystal water 



i20« Spring Birds. 

wiinpl.iiir down tlic furrows as tliesuii iirow strong 
the teiidei* grass Ijeneatli, and at each side, sliowing 
tlu'ough the (juivering How like a frame of enierahl. 
The oreat buds of the chestnuts and those of other 
trees grew chiily larger, and shone in the thick wa- 
terj)roof-coatings with which they had been protected 
througlj the winter. Small green snakes, too, began 
to glide about after their long torpidity ; the wild 
fowd reappeared in long flights high overhead, on 
their way to their breeding-places in the far north ; 
tlie reed-sparrows in their rich black plumage, with 
scarlet shoulders fading off to yellow ; the roljin, 
resembling his English namesake only in the name, 
as he belongs to the family of thrushes in Canada ; 
the s(piii-rels in their beautiful coats, with their 
great bushy tails and large eyes, stirring in every 
direction through the trees, and every little while 
proclaiming their presence by a sound which I can 
only comj)are to the whirr of a broken watch-spring ; 
the frogs beginning to send uptheii- thousand croaks 
from every standing pool — all things, indeed, in 
the animal and ve<retablc world showiniT siiins of 
joy, heralded the flowery summer that was advanc- 
ing toward u?. 

The darling little blue-bird, the herald of spring, 
liad already come to gladden us while the snow was 
yet on the ground, flitting about the barn and the 
fence-posts, and, after we had an orchard, about the 
apple-trees, of which it chiefly consisted. About 
the middle of JNIarch he and his mate might be seen 



Wusoiih Poem on the Blue Bird. 209 

visiting the box in tlic garden, wliere lie Imtl kept 
house the year before, or, in places where the or- 
chards were old, looking at the hole in the api)le- 
tree where his family had lived in preceding 
summers. He had come to be ready for the first 
api)earance of the insects on which chiefly he feeds, 
and, by killing whole myriads of which, he proves 
himself one of the best friends of tlic larmer. 
There is a poem of Alexander Wilson, the Ameri- 
can ornithologist, about the blue-bird, Avhich tells 
the whole story of a Canada spring so admirably, 
and is so little known, that I cannot resist the pleas- 
ure of quoting part of it. 

" When winter's cold tempests and snows arc no more, 

Green meadows and hrown furrowed fields reappearing. 
The fislicrmen hauling their shad to the shore, 

And elouil-elcavin.i,' <,'eese to tlie lakes are sv-steering; 
When first the lone butterfly flits on the wing, 

When glow the red maples, so fresh and so pleasing, 
Oh, then comes the hlne-bird, the herald of spring, 

And hails with liis warblings the charms of tlie season. 

« Then loud-piping frogs make the marshes to ring. 

Then warm glows the sunshine and fine is the weather ; 
The blue woodland flowers just beginning to spring, 

And spice wood and sassafras budding together. 
O then to your gardens, ye liousewives repair. 

Your walks border up, sow and plant at your leisure. 
The blue-bird will chant from his box such an air. 

That all your hard toils will seem truly a pleasure. 

"He flits through the orchard, he visits each tree. 

The red-flowering peach, and the apple's sweet blos-WTna 
18* 



210 Downy Woodpeckers. 

He snapi up destroyers wlicrcver they be, 
And seizes the caitiffs that lurk in their bosoms ; 

He drags the vile grub from the corn he devours, 

The worms from their beds, where they riot and welter ; 

His song and his services freely are ours, 
And all that he asks is, in summer, a shelter. 

" The plonglnnan is pleased when he gleans in his train. 

Now sciuvliing tlie furrows, now mounting to cheer him ; 
The gardener deliglits in his sweet, simjjle strain, 

And leans on his spade to survey and to heai- him ; 
The slow ling'ring schoolboys forget they'll be chid, 

While gazing intent as he warbles before 'em 
In mantle of sky-blue, and bosom so red. 

That cadi little wanderer seems to adore him." 



The mention of the blue-bird's activity in destroy- 
ing insects brings to my mind my old friends, the 
woodpeckers, once more. In John Courtenay's 
orchard, which was an old one, several of these 
birds built every season, hovering about the place 
the whole year, as they are among the very few 
Canadian birds that do not migrate. He showed 
me, one day, the nest of one of the species called 
" Downy," in an old apple-tree. A hole had been 
cut in the body of the tree, as round as if it had 
been marked out by a carpenter's compasses, about 
six or eight inches deep in a slanting direction, and 
then ten or twelve more perpendicularly, the top of 
it only large enough to let the parents in and out, 
but the bottom apparently quite roomy, for the 
young family. As far as I could see, it was as 
smooth as a man could have made it, and I was as- 



Downy Woodpeckers. 211 

surecl that it was the same in every part. It ap 
pears that these birds are as cunning as they are 
clever at this art, the two old ones regularly cai-ry 
ing out all the chips as they are made, and strewing 
them about at a considerable distance from the nest, 
so as to j)revent suspicion of its presence. Six pure 
white erws, laid on the smooth bottom of their curi- 
ous abode, mark the number of each year's flimily, 
the female bird sitting closely on them while they 
are being hatched, her husband, meanwhile, busying 
himself in supplying her with choice grubs, that she 
may want for notliing in her voluntary imprison- 
ment. The little woodpeckers make their first ap- 
pearance about the middle of June, when one may 
see them climbing the bark of the tree as well as 
they can, as if practising before they finally set out 
in life for themselves. I had often wondered at the 
appearance of the bark in many of the apple and 
pear-trees, which seemed as if some one had fired 
charges of shot into them ; but it was long before I 
knew the real cause. It appears that it is the work 
of the woodpeckers, and many farmers consequently 
think the poor birds highly injurious to their or- 
chards. But there are no real grounds for such an 
opinion, for no mischief is done by these punctures, 
numerous though they be. I have always remarked 
that the trees which were perforated most seemed 
most thriving, no doubt because the birds had de- 
stroyed the insects which otherwise would have 
injured them. The autumn and winter is the great 



212 Downy Woodpeckers. 

time for their operations, and it is precisely tlie time 
when the preservation of tlie fruit, in the coming 
sunnner, can be best secured. Curious as it may 
seem that such a riddling]!; of the bark can be bene- 
ficial to the tree, it evidently is so. From the 
ground to where tlie branches fork otf, there is often 
hardly an inch of the bark which does not bear the 
mark of some grub-hunt, and sometimes eight or 
ten of them might be covered by a penny. Farm- 
ers, however, rarely philosophize, and no wonder 
that in this case they regard as prejudicial Avliat is 
really a benefit. But, on the other hand, they are 
correct enough as to the habits of some of the wood- 
peckers, for greater thieves than the red-headed 
ones, at some seasons, can hardly be found. The 
little rascals devour fruit of all kinds as it ripens, 
completely stripping the trees, if permitted. In 
fact, they have a lildng for all good things ; they 
are sure to pick the finest strawberries from your 
beds, and have no less relish for apples, peaches, 
cherries, plums, and pears ; Indian corn, also, is a 
favorite dish with them, wdiile it is still milky. Nor 
do these little plagues keep to vegetable diet exclu- 
sively ; the eggs in the nests of small birds are never 
passed by in their search for delicacies. One can't 
wonder, therefore, that, with such plundering pro- 
pensities, they should lose their lives pretty often. 

Tlie flocks of pigeons that come in the early 
spring are wonderful. They fly together in bodies 
of many thousands, perching, as close as they can 



Passenger Pigeons. 213 

seitie, n Jtv, trees Avlieii tlioy alight, or covering 
the ground i rer large spaces when feeding. The 
first tidings ol their api)roach is the signal for every 
available gun to be brought into requisition, at once 
to i)rocure a sujjply of fresh food, and to protect the 
crops on the holds, which the pigeons would vitterly 
destroy if they were allowed. It is singular how 
little sense, or perhaps fear, such usually timid 
birds have when collected together m numbers. 
I have heard of one man who was out shooting 
them, and had crept close to one flock, when then- 
leaders took a fancy to fly directly over him, almost 
close to the ground, to his no small terror. Thou- 
sands brushed past him so close as to make him 
alarmed for his eyes ; and the stream still kept pour- 
ing on after he had discharged his barrels, right and 
left, into it, until nothing remained but to throw 
himself on his face till the whole had flown over 
him. They do not, however, come to any part of 
Canada with which I am acquainted in such amaz- 
ing numbers as are said by Wilson and Audubon to 
visit the western United States. The latter natu- 
ralist left his house at Henderson, on the Ohio, in 
the autumn of 1813, on his way to Louisville, and 
on passing the Barrens, a few miles beyond Hardens- 
burgh, observed the pigeons flying from north-east 
to south-west in such numbers, that he thought he 
would try to calculate how many there really were. 
Dismounting, and seating himself on a knoll, he 
began making a dot in his note-book for every flock 



214 Their Numbers. 

tliat passed, 1 nt in a sliort time Iiad to give up the 
attein[tt, as he had ah'eadyput down a hundred and 
sixty-tliree in twenty-one minutes, and they still 
poured on in countless nudtiludes. The air was 
literally filled with pigeons; the light of noon-day 
was obscured as if by an eclij)se, and the continued 
buz/, of wings produced an inclination to drowsiness. 
When he reached Louisville, a distance of fifty-five 
miles, the i)igeons were still passing in unabated 
numbers, and continued to do so for three days in 
succession. He calculated that, ^if two ])igeons 
were allowed for each square yard, the number in 
a single fiock — and that not a large one, extending 
one mile in breadth and a hundred and eighty in 
length — could not be less than one billion, one 
Imndrcd and fifteen millions, one hundred and 
thirty-six thousand ! The food required for such a 
countless host passes our j)Ower to realize clearly, 
for, at half a pint a day, which is hardl}^ as much 
as a pigeon consumes, they would eat, in a single 
day, eight millions, seven hundred and twelve 
thousand bushels. To get such supplies from cul- 
tivated fields would, of course, be impossible, and it 
is fortunate that they hardly ever attempt it, their 
principal support being the vast quantities of beech- 
mast which the unlimited expanse of unbroken 
forest supplies. 

A curious fact respecting them is that they have 
fixed roosting-places, from which no disturbance 
appears able to drive them, and to these they resort 



Roosiing-^laces. 215 

night by niglit, lioAvever far they may have to fly 
to ohtain food on the returning day. One of them, 
in Kentucky, was repeatedly visited hy Audubon, 
who found that it was about forty miles in lengtli 
by three in breadth. A fortnight after the pigeons 
had chosen it for the season, he found tliat a great 
number of persons, with liorses and wagons, guns 
and ammunition, had already established themselves 
on its bordei's. Herds of hogs had been driven up 
to fatten on a portion of those which might be 
killed. Some of the visitors were busy plucking 
and salting what had been already procured, huge 
piles of them lying on each side of their seats. 
Many trees two feet in diameter were broken off at 
no o;reat (hstance from the irronnd bv the weight of 
the multitudes that had lighted on them ; and huge 
branches had given way, as if the forest had been 
swept by a tornado. As the hour of their arrival 
approached, every preparation was made to receive 
them : iron pots, containing sulphur, torches oi 
pine-knots, poles and guns, being got ready for use 
the moment they came. Shortly after sunset the 
cry arose that they were come at last. The noise 
they made, though yet distant, was like that of a 
hard gale at sea, when it passes through the rigging 
of a closely-reefed vessel. Thousands were soon 
knocked down by the polemen ; the birds continued 
to pour in ; the fires were lighted ; and a magni- 
ficent as Avell as wonderful and almost terrifying 
sight presented itself. The pigeons, arriving by 



216 Roost'mg-places. 

thousands, alighted everywhere, one ibovt another, 
antil soHd masses as large as hogsheads were formed 
on the branches all ronnd. Here and there the 
perches gave way, and falling on the ground with 
a crash, destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, 
forcing down the dense groups with which every 
spot was loaded. The j)igeons were constantly 
coming, and it was past midnight before he per- 
ceived a decrease in their number. Before day- 
light they had begun again to move off, and by 
sunrise all were gone. This is Audubon's account. 
I myself have killed thirteen at a shot, fired at a 
venture into a flock ; and my sister Margaret killed 
two one day by simply throwing up a stick she had 
in her hand as they swejit ])ast at a point where 
we had told her to stand, in order to frighten them 
into the open ground, that we might have a better 
chance of shooting them. I have seen bagfuls of 
them that had been killed by no more formidable 
weapons than poles swung right and left at them 
as they flew close past. The rate at Avhicli they 
fly is Avonderful, and has been computed at about 
a mile a minute, at which rate they keep on for 
hours together, darting forward with rai)id beats 
of their wings very much as our ordinary pigeons 
do. 

The frogs were as great a source of amusement 
to us as the pigeons were of excitement. Wher- 
ever there was a spot of water, thence, by night and 
day, came their chorus, the double bass of the Vull- 



Bull Frogs. 217 

frogs striking in every now and then amidst the in- 
describable piping of the muUitndes of their smaller 
brethren. It is very difficult to catch a sight of 
tliese bassoon performers, as they spring into the 
water at the slightest approach of danger ; yet you 
may now and then come on them basking at the 
side of a pond or streamlet, their great goggle eyes 
and black skin making them look very grotesque. 
They are great thieves in their own proper element, 
many a duckling vanishing from its mother's side 
by a sudden snap of some one of tliese solemn gen- 
tlemen below. They are a hungry race, always 
ready apparently for what they can get, and making 
short work with small fishes, all kinds of small rep- 
tiles, and even, I believe, the lesser kinds of snakes, 
when they can get them. These fellows are the 
giants of the frog tribes, and portly gentlemen 
withal, some of them weighing very nearly a pound. 
The shrill croak of the other frogs is like nothing 
else that I ever heard : it is a sort of trill of two or 
three notes, as if coming through water, and it rises 
from so many throats at once that it may be said 
never for a moment to cease. There is a kind of 
frog which lives. on the branches of trees, catching 
the insects on the leaves — a beautiful little crea- 
ture, of so nicely shaded a green that it is almost 
impossible to detect it even when you are close to 
it. Henry and I were one day at work in the early 
summer near a young maple, in the back part of 
the fai-m, and could hardly keep up conversation 

19 



218 Tree Frogs. 

for the hissinji; trill of a number of tliem on it , but 
thou^li the tree was so near us, we could not, by all 
our looking, discover any of the invisible minstrels. 
At last the thing became so ludic-njus that we deter 
inineid, if j)ossible, to get a sight of one ; and as tlio 
lower branches began at about our own height, one 
of us went to the one side, and the other to the 
other, to watch. Trill — trill — bubble — bubble 
— bubble — rose all around us, but no other signs 
of the warblers. We looked and laughed, laughed 
and looked again ; the sound was within a yard of 
us, yet nothing could be seen. When almost giv- 
ing up, however, I chanced to look exactly on the 
spot where one was making his little throat swell 
to get out another set of notes, and the rise and fall 
of its breast at once discovered its presence. Hen- 
ry was at my side in a moment, and we could both 
see it plainly enough, of course, when our eyes liad 
once fairly distinguished it from the green around. 
It continued to sit unmoved on its leaf, and we did 
not disturb it. 

One morning we came upon a beautiful little 
creature which had been killed by some means, and 
lay in the yard near the barn. It was evidently a 
squirrel, but diifered from the ordinaly species in 
one curious particular. Instead of having its legs 
free like those of other squirrels, a long stretch of 
fur extended from the front to the back legs so as 
to form something like wings when spread out. It 
Was a flying scjuirrel, a kind not so common as the 



Flijinfj Squirrels. 219 

others, and coming out mostly by niglit. These 
extraordinary appendages at tlieir sides are used by 
them to sustain them in enormous leaps which they 
make from branch to branch, or from one tree to 
another. Trusting to them they dart hither and 
thither with wonderful swiftness ; indeed, it is hard 
for the eye to follow their movements. What most 
struck me in this unusual devehjpment was the evi- 
dent approach it made towards the characteristic of 
birds, being as it were a link between the form of 
an ordinary quadruped and that of a bat, and stand- 
inf in the same relation to the wing of the latter as 
that does to the wing of a bird. It is singular how 
one class of creatures merges into another in every 
department of animal life. Indeed, it is puzzling 
at times to distlnn;uish between veo-etable and ani- 
mal structures, where the confines of the two king- 
doms join, as the word zoophyte, which really means 
" a living plant," sufficiently shows. Then there 
is a caterpillar in New Zealand out of whose back, 
at a certain stage of its growth, springs a kind of fun- 
gus, which gradually drinks, up the whole juices of 
the insect and destroys it ; but this is not so much an 
approximation of two different orders as an acci- 
dental union. There are, however, many cases of 
interliidving in the different "families " into which 
life is divided, the study of which is exceedingly 
curious and interesting. 



220 Oar Spring Crovi. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Our spring ciops. — Indian corn. — Pumpkins. — Melons. — FiuTto 
— Wild flowers. 

ri'^HE first thing we tliought of, wlien the spring 
J- had fairly set in, was to get spring wheat, 
potatoes, Indian ct)ni, pumpkins, oats, and other 
crops into the ground. Our potatoes were man- 
aged in a very primitive way, in a patcli of newly- 
cleared ground, the surface of which, with a good 
deal more, we had to burn off before it could be 
tilled. A heavy hoe was the only implement used, 
a stroke or two with it sufficing to make a hole for 
the potato cuttings, and two or three more to drag 
the earth over them, so as to form a " hill,'' These 
we made at about eighteen inches apart, putting 
three or four jjumpkin seeds in every third liill of 
the alternate rows. The Indian corn was planted 
m the same way, in hills more than a yard apart, 
pumpkin seeds being put in with it also. It is my 
favorite of all the beautiful plants of Canada. A 
field of it, when at its finest, is, I think, as charm- 
ing a sight as could well invite the eye. Rising 
higher than the height of a man, its great jointed 



Pumjjkins. 221 

stems are crested at the top by a long waving plume 
of j)urple, while from the upper end of each head 
of the grain there waves a long tassel resembling 
pale green silk. It is grown to a large extent in 
Canada, but it is most cultivated in the Western 
United States, many fanners on the prairies there 
gi'owing a great many acres of it. It is used in many 
ways. When still unripe it is full of delicious milky 
juice, which makes it a delicacy for the table when 
boiled. The ripe corn makes excellent meal for 
cakes, etc., and is the best food for pigs or poultry, 
while the stalks make excellent fodder for cattle. 
The poor Indians grow a little corn when they 
grow nothing else. You may see the long strings 
of ears ])]aited together by the tough wrappings 
round each, and hung along poles round their wig- 
wams to dry for winter use. They have been in 
possession of it no one can tell how long. When 
the MaijjUoiver anchored, with the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers, at Plymouth Bay, in Massachusetts, in 1620, 
they found hoards of it buried for safety in the 
woods around, the Indians having taken this plan 
to conceal it from them. 

The size of the pumpkins is sometimes enormous. 
I have known them so large that one would fill a 
wheelbarrow, and used often to think of a piece of 
rhyme I learned when a boy, in which it was pointed 
out what a mercy it was that they grew on the 
ground rather than aloft, acorns being quite heavy 

19* 



222 Melons. 

enough in windy weather.* Tliey are used in great 
quantities for " pumpkin pie," as the Canadians 
cull it — a preparation of sweetened pumpkin spread 
over paste. They use them in this way, not only 
while fresh, but cut a great many into thin slices and 
dry them, that they may have this dessert in winter 
as well as summer. They are excellent food for 
pigs and cattle when broken into manageable pieces 
for them. I don't think any thing grew with us 
better than beets and carrots, the latter especially. 
A farmer in our neighborhood, who was partial to 
their m'owth for the sake of his horses and cattle, 
beat us, however, in the quantity raised on a given 
space, having actually gathered at the rate of thir- 
teen hundred bushels per acre of carrots. We had 
a carrot show some years after in the neighboring 
township, at which this fact was state 1, and its 
accuracy fairly established by the fact of others 
having gathered at the rate of as many as eleven 
hundred bushels per acre. I remember the meeting 
chiefly from the assertion of an Irishman present, 
who would not allow that any thing in Canada 
could surpass its counterpart in his native island, 
and maintained that these carrots were certainly 
very good, but that they were nothing to one which 
was grown near Cork, which was no less than eight 
feet nine inches in length ! 

A variety of melons formed one of the novelties 

* Le Gland et la Citrouille : Fables de La Fontaine, B ix. 4. 



FraiU. 223 

we irrew after the first season. We liad nothing 
to do but put tliem in tlie ground and keep them 
free from weeds, wlien they began to " run " — as 
they did, far and near, over the groinid. It was an 
easy way to get a luxury, for some of tliem ai'e very 
dehcious, and all are very refreshing in the sultry 
heat of suiuniei'. 1 hey grow in every j)art of 
Canada in great luxuriance, and without any thing 
like a pre])aration of the soil. Indeed, I once saw 
a great fellow of an Indian jilantiiig some, which 
would doubtless iirow well enouiih, with his toes — 
pushing aside earth enough to receive the seeds, and 
then, with another motion of his foot, covering them 
up. Cucund)ers grew in surprising numbers from 
a very small quantity of seed, and we had a castor- 
oil plant and some j)lants of red pepjier before our 
doors. We had not very much time at first to 
attend to a vegetable garden, and therefore contented 
ourselves with a limited rano;c of that kind of com- 
forts, but it was not the fault of the soil or climate, 
for in no place of which I know do the various 
bounties of the garden grow more freely than in 
Canada. Cabbages, cauliflower, brocoli, peas, 
French beans, spinach, onions, turnips, carrots, 
parsnips, radishes, lettuces, beet, asparagus, celery, 
rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers, and I know not 
what else, need only be sown or planted to yield a 
bountiful return. 

As to fruits, Ave had, for years, to buy all we 
used, or to gather it in ihe woods, but it was very 



224 Fridt8. 

cheap wlicn Ixniolit, and easily procured when gatli 
ered. Aj)p]es of a size and flavor ahnost peculiar 
to America, pears, plums, cherries, raspl)erries, cur- 
rants, and strawberries, grow everywhere in amaz- 
ing abundance. Peaches of tlie sunin'est beauty 
and most delicate flavor are at times in some dis- 
tricts almost as plentiful as potatoes ; but we never 
managed to get any from our orchard, Avant of 
knowledge on our part having spoiled our first trees, 
which Ave never afterwards exchanged for others. 
But on the Niagara River I have known them sell 
for a shilling a bushel, and every laborer you met 
would be devouring them by the half-dozen. A 
gentleman, within a few miles of us, took a fancy to 
cultivate grapes as extensively as he could in the 
open air, and succeeded so well that he told me 
before I left that he had sold a year's crop for about 
a hundred pounds. If Ave had had as much slu'CAvd- 
ness as avc ought to have had, Ave should have 
begun the culture of fruit rather than of mere farm 
produce, and I feel sure it would have j^aid us far 
better. But people, coming fresh to a country, take 
a long time to learn Avhat is best for them to do, 
and Avhen they liaA-e learned, have too often no 
sufficient means of turning to it, or, perhaps, no 
leisure, Avhile many, through disappointed hopes, 
lose their spirit and energy. 

The Avild fruits we found to be as various as the 
cultivated kinds, and some of them Avere A'ery good. 
The Avild cherries were abundant in our bush, and 



Wild Flowers. 225 

did excellently for preserves. Gooseberries, small, 
Avitli a rou^li prickly skin and of a poor flavor, were 
often brouolit by the Indians to barter for pork or 
flour. Kas})berries and strawberries covered the 
open places at the roadsides, and along the banks of 
*' creeks ; " and whortleberries and blueberries, 
black and red currants, juniper berries, plums and 
hazel nuts, were never far distant. We used to 
gather large quantities ourselves, and the Indians 
were constantly coming with pailfuls in the season. 
It is one of the beneficent aiTangements of Provi- 
dence, that, in a climate so exceedingly hot in sum- 
mer, there should be such a profusion of fruits and 
vegetables Avithin the reach of all, adding not only 
to comfort, but diffusing enjoyment, and exerting, 
also, a salutary influence upon health. 

What shall I say of the wild flowers which burst 
out as the year advanced ? In open places, the 
woods were well nigh carpeted with them, and 
clearings that had, for whatever reason, been for a 
time abandoned, soon showed like gardens with 
their varied colors. The scarlet lobelia, the blue 
lupin, gentian, columbine, violets in countless 
variety, honeysuckles, flinging their fragant flowers 
in long tresses from the trees, campanula, harebell, 
balsams, asters, calceolarias, the snowy lily of the 
valley, and clouds of wild roses, are only a few 
fi-om the list. Varieties of mint, with beautiful 
flowers, adorned the sides of streams or the open 
meadows, and, resting in a floating meadow of its 



226 Tlie " Bitter Sweet:' 

own green leaves, on the still water of the river- 
bends, or of the creeks, whole stretches of the great 
white water-lily rose and fell with every gentle 
undulation. 

There was a berry, also, the " bitter sweet," 
which was, in the latter part of the year, as pretty 
as any flower. At the end of each of the delicate 
twigs on which it grew, it hung in clusters, which, 
while unripe, were of the richest orange ; but after 
a time, this covering o})ened into four golden points, 
and .showed, in the centre, a bright scarlet berry. 



Tlie Indians. 227 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Indians. — Wigwams. — Dress. — Can the Indians be civilized? 

— Tbeir past decay as a race. — Alleged innocence of savage life. 

— Narrative ol' Fatlier Jogucs, the Jesuit missionary. 

BEFORE coming to America we had read a 
great deal about the Indians, and were most 
anxious to see them. I remember asking a lady 
from Canada if she was not afraid of them, and was 
astonished when she smiled at the question. Our 
minds had been filled in childhood with stories 
about the Moliawks, and Hurons, and other savage 
nations ; how they rushed on the houses of settlers 
at the dead of night, and, after burning their houses, 
killed and scalped the men, and drove the women 
and children into captivity in the woods. Their 
painted faces, wild feathered dresses, and terrible 
war-ciy had become quite familiar to our heated 
fancies ; and we were by no means sure we should 
not have to endure too close an acquaintance with 
them when we became settlers in their country. 
The terrible story on which Campbell's beautiful 
poem, " Gertrude of Wyoming," is founded, was 
regarded as a sample of what we had to fear in our 



228 Indiari Wigwams. 

lay in CuiiiiJa, Moreover, the romantic accounts 
»f" Indian warriors in the novels of Coopei', and in 
ilie writings of travellers, helped to increase both 
our curiosity and dread, and we were all most anx- 
•ous to see the representatives of the red men in 
our own settlement, notwithstanding our extrava- 
gant fear of tlieni. We were not long leit to think 
what they were like, however ; for it so happened 
\hat tlierc was an Indian settlement on land reserved 
Soy them along the river a i'ew miles above us, and 
}dd families ever and anon pitched their wigwams 
vU the bush close to us. The first time they did so, 
«ve all went out eager to see them at on( e, but 
Qever were ridiculous hio-h-flown notions doomed 

o 

lo meet a more thorough disappointment. They 
were encamped on the sloping bank of the creek, 
for it was beautiful sununer weather, two or three 
wigwams rising under the shade of a fine oak which 
stretched hitrh overhead. The wijiwams themselves 
were simply sheets of the bark of the bii'cli and 
bass-trees, laid against a sliglit framework of poles 
inside, and sloping inwards like a cone, with a hole 
at the top. An open space served for an entrance, 
a loose slieet of bark, at the side, standing ready to 
do duty as a door, if required. I have seen them 
of different shapes, but they are generally round, 
though a few show the fancy of their owners by 
resembling the sloping roof of a house laid on the 
ground, ^^■itll the entry at one end. Bark is the 
common material ; but in the woods on the St. Clair 



Indian Wi<jwams. 229 

river I once saw a family ensconced below some 
yards of white cotton, stretched over two or three 
rods ; and near Halifax, in Nova Scotia, in winter, 
I noticed sonic wigwams made of loose broken out- 
side slabs of logs, which the inmates had laboriously 
crot togctiier. In this last miserable hovel, by the 
way, in the midst of deep snow, with the wind 
whistling through it in every direction, and the 
thermometer below zero, lay a sick stjuaw and a 
young infant, on some straw and old blankets, to 
get well the best way she could. What she must 
have suffered from the cold can hardly be conceived. 
No wonder so many die of consumption. 

In the group at the wigwams, as we drew near, 
wo could see there were both men, women, and 
children — the men and women ornamented with 
great flat silver earrings, and all, including the 
children, bare-headed. Their hair was of jet black, 
and quite straight, and the men had neither beards 
nor whiskers. Both sexes wore their hair long, 
some of them plaiting it up in various ways. Their 
color was like that of a brown dried leaf, their cheek- 
bones high and wide apart; their mouths generally 
large, and their eyes smaller than ours ; and we 
noticed that they all had good teeth. This is not, 
however, an invariable characteristic, for sometimes 
they suffer from their decay, like Europeans, and 
the doctor once told me how an Indian had waited 
for him at the side of the road, and, when he came 
up, had made signs of pain from toothache, and of 
20 



230 Indian Dress. 

his wish that the tooth slioulJ be removed, which 
was forthwith done, the sufferer departing in great 
glee at the tliought of his deHverance. " The next 
day," the doctor added, " the poor fellow showed 
his gratitude by waiting for me at the same place 
with a fJMO stone j)ipe-head, which he had just cut, 
and which he handed to me with a <ri'unt of ijood- 
will as I came up." The dress of the women con- 
sisted of a cotton jacket, a short petticoat of cloth, 
with leggings of cloth underneath, Avhich fitted 
tightly. Those who were doing nothing liad a 
blanket loosely thrown over tliem, though it was 
then hot enough to do without almost any clothing. 
The ch'ess of the men varied, from the merest 
mockery of clothing to the full suit of a cotton shirt 
and a pair of long leather or cloth leiro;i»2S' One 
of them, a great strapping man, gave my sisters a 
great fright, shortly after, by walking into the house 
as noiselessly as a cat, and stalking up to the fire 
for a light to his pipe, with nothing on him but a 
cotton shirt. Pulling out a piece of burning wood 
and kindling his pipe, he sat down on a chair beside 
them to enjoy a smoke, without ever saying a word, 
and went off, when he had finished, with equal 
silence. The little children were naked either 
altogether, or with the exception of a piece of cotton 
round their loins ; and the babies, of which there 
are always some in every Indian encampment, 
peered out with their bright bhu^k beads of eyes 
from papooses, either hung u{ on a forked pole or 



Indian Babies. 231 

resting against a tree. These "japooses" were 
quite a novelty to us. They were simply a flat, 
board a little longer than the infant, with a bow of 
hickory bent in an arcli over the upper end, to 
protect the head, and some strings at the sides to 
tic the little creature safely. There it lay or stood, 
with abundant wrappings round it, but with its legs 
and arms in hopeless confinement, its little eyes 
and thin trembling lips alone telling the story of its 
tender age. To lift it was like tidiinsc hold of a 
fiddle, only you could hardly hurt it so easily as you 
might the instrument. Not a cry was to be heard, 
for Indian babies seem always good, and nobody 
was uselessly occupied in taking care of them, for, 
where they were, no injury could come near them. 
I should not myself like to be tied up in such a 
way, but it seems to do famously with them. One 
of the women had her child at her back, inside her 
blanket, its little brown face and black eyes peering 
over her shoulder. Another was putting some 
sticks under a pot, hung from a pole, which rested 
on the forks of two others ; and one or two were 
enjoying a gossip on the grass. The men, of course, 
were doing nothing, while the boys were amusing 
themselves with their bows and arrows, in the use 
of which they are "'ery expert. We had been told 
that they could hit almost any thing, and resolved 
to try them with some coppers, which were certainly 
very small objects to strike in the air ; but the little 
fellows were wonderful archers. Each half-penny 



232 Indian Habits. 

■got its quietus the moment it left our fingers, and 
tliey even hit a sixpence wliicli Henry, in a fit of 
generosity, threw up. Birds nuist have a very 
small chance of esca])e \\\w\\ they get within range 
of their arrows. It brought to my mind the little 
Balearic islanders, who, in old times, could not get 
their dinners till they had hit them from the top of 
a higli pole with their slings, and country boys I 
had seen in England, whom long practice had taught 
to throw stones so exactly that they could hit almost 
any thing. Indeed, there seems to be nothing that 
we may not h^ani if we only try long enough, and 
with sufficient earnestness. 

It used to astonish me to see the Indians on the 
" Reserve " living in bark wigwams, close to com- 
fortable log-houses erected for them by Govern- 
ment, but which they would not take as a gift. I 
used to think it a striking proof of the difficulty of 
breaking off the habits formed in uncivilized life, 
and so indeed it is ; but the poor Indians had more 
sense in what seems madness than I at first sup- 
posed. It appears they feel persuaded that living 
one part of the year in the warmth and comfort of 
a log-house makes them unable to bear the exposure 
during the rest, when they are away in the woods 
on their hunting expeditions. But why they should 
not give up these wandering habits, which force 
such hardships on them, and repay them so badly 
after all, is wonderful, and must be attributed to 
the inveterate force of habit. It seems to be very 



Can tJw Indians he Civilized? 233 

hard to get wildnoss out of the blood w].(Mi once 
faii-lv in it. It takes generations in most cases to 
niidse such men civiHzod. Lord Dartmoutli once 
founded a college for Indians in jNIassachusetts, 
■\vlu'n it was a liritish ])rovin('e, and some of them 
were collected and taught English and the classics, 
with the other branches of a liberal education ; but 
it was found, after they had finlsheil their studies, 
that they were still Indians, and that, as soon as 
they had a chance, they threw away their books 
and English clothes, to run off ao;ain to the woods 
and wander about in clothes of skins, and live in 
wio;wams. It is the same with the aborigines of 
Australia. The missionaries and their wives have 
tried to got them taught the simple rudiments of 
English life — the boys to work and the girls to 
sew — but it has been found that, after a time, they 
always got like caged birds beating against their 
prison, and that they coidd not be ke])t from dart- 
ino; off airain to the wilderness. The New Zea- 
lander stands, so far as I know, a solitary and 
wonderful excejttion to this rule, the sons of men 
who were cannibals have already adopted civili- 
zation to so great an extent as to be tlieir own ship- 
builders, sailors, captains, clerks, schoolmasters, and 
farmers. 

It seems almost the necessary result of civilized 
and uncivilized people living together in the same 
country that the latter, as the weaker, should fade 
away before their rivals, if they do not thoroughly 

20* 



ii'l</j(l llif'ir l);il(il;i, 'Iliif !il<oii;.»i»i!il iiili:ihit;intH of 
llic Siiii'lwlrl) |!>|;ii|(h ill*' »':ij(i<lly ;ij;)/ri(;i< liin^ «;X 
liii'lioM ill hj(i(<' <»J'iill cflorlrt lo m'ciiic llii'lr j« fm:i- 
ii'ii''-, '] Ih- vir<'^of' rivili/afion Iijiv*' <'orrii)iU'<l flu* 
v< ry l(l'/<('j <<(' iIm- nu'c, till Micy n^•^'lu lioj»<'l<^hhly 
(ii<lili;^ UWIiy, 'i'lm lllltivt^ of N<!W IIoll;iii(| ;i|(j 
viinihliiii^^ in lln; haiiM' way, tlioii^li iiol, jx-iliajix, 
f'i'OMi ill'' s'iiiiM' iiniiii'liiit<' riiiiM'K. TIm! ( !aiil»« oC 
IIm! W<'.J lii'li<-, \vl)'/ Wfju? Hti Wvyn- iind j/owitIuI 
in iIm' 'liiy» oT < 'oliiiiihiH aii'l lii>< hiwcfhihoiii, urn 
now I'Xliii'-t, Jl i^ iniM'li \\u- M:itii<; willi tli<! Ui-<l 
Man of AiM<;ri<'u. 'JIm! wliolt- (((Mliii'iil wa^> fli<'ir« 
iVoiii iiortli lo Koiitli, aii'i i'roiii ^ahl lo w<'kI, lail now 
lli<'y aio only lo In; lonn*! <tow(|<'(| into coumtm of 
our <liir<'i<'iil jdoviiM'CH, ti poor anil nn«»'ralil<' rem- 
nant, or a^ \\i\i\\'\\i:H in rcniolc jirairi«'H aii'l fontHlH, 
lor lli<y have Incn marly lianiisln'd allo^^i-ilicr Trom 
fli(! »<'lll<'<l l<'rriloi'ii'M oIiIk' Slali'K. Il, i« a rmiouH 
la/I, alho, llial-llii»s i* nol llif lliil liiin! wi<l«*ly-Nj»r«'a<l 
raccM «<rilicir color liavi; hci-n hwcpl away Iroin IImj 
haiiK* va^il, huilacf'. ItiinalnM of rornicr |)o|)iilalionH, 
will' I) li;ivir |)i'i i^li''l In for'- lli'»:i<; who lli'-infi'-l v<'« 
ar<f now ix-ri^liin;^^, aii- lo l»(; lono'l in nimiy jiarln, 
ars in ill'' liii^"' hnrial nioiin'U ol < )lii<i, aii'l lli<- ruined 
• •ili'-ri '»r < inal'-mala aii'l Viicnlan. ('aiiada lia'i ii'tw 
H('ll|fin''nlM ol lii'liaiir^ in varionri placcn, ImiI lli''y 
art*, allo^i'llier, I'vv in nnnilxr. Oim' Im on Mani- 
loiilin Ihlaii'l, iK-at iIh- iiorilii-rn :Ji<iii' ol Lako 
llmoii, wlnii- a ' l< I •' V iii;iii "I ill'' ^'liiu'li ol I'^n^- 
liiiid, Ml. r«li| .lai'oj.rt, liim-.'ir all ln<liaii, iiiiriiH- 



Iliiliilli hi I iiij (in (I Unrc. 23ft 

U^rn, J«H .'I VA-'.\\in\: ;iii'l flli'iriit. \n'\mut\\',iry \ juioiIkt, 
ftj. tli<r )(<;i'l 'd Jtjvcr Ht. (>lair, Mnrl^-lK-H flown flm 
Icuik (or four or (ivn fnilot, tli<- (;irlnr<; of iif;.'l<<t 
!in<l (ivf-rfjoji t.o work, in (Ik- midnt ol' irn|»rov('iiM'nt 
;il, c'K li •i'lc ; on<- on VV;ilj»ol<; Inljin<l, down llio 
itv<'r, wlwrc tli(t i/ii •.nionary in oim* of tin- rnoif r-fir- 
n<»i(. ;in'l l;il»(irioir'. I li;iv»r Ii;i(| \\u: |i|c,'iiii(r<- of kiiow- 
luy. \ one on tii'- luink*'. ol' llnr rivr TliiiinfM, iifi'l<r 
tli»Mli;uy<- of (Ik; Moriiviiin lir^^lliM^li — (Ik- wr<-<k 
olfrih'-h who Idl lli«; S(ii(ci'. in f.|n; wtir, l.-i^t rcndiry 
lorniinj/, wi(li ;inotlK'r hi-\\\f\wu\ on (Ik- ^iriin<l 
|{iv<rr, n<;ii riiiin(f'or'l, (Ik; n')»n;n<'fi(»i(ivcH of (hoMfi 
wIk>, in Lor<l di;i(li;iin'« flay, hron^lif. riown (liiif, 
j.MC!tl. orfdor'rt («-rril»l'; 'l<'rinfK'iii(iofi ol' iIk; " rajiinf!; 
in(o <i vili/« 'I ;illi;in''' iIk-, wiM .'in'l ininiMKin inli;il»- 
i(iint.n of (Ik; wood'., ;ind d<;l<-j.';ilin;.^ (o (Ik; (oinJi- 
li;iwk !ind (Ik; wnlpin^z-knili- of the nK'rfil(;«« hiiV!!^*;*! 
1.li<! n^h(.H ol' dinpiiT'd |MOj.<rly," 'rh<r<! ar(j wmio 
<i(,h''r« (o iIk; nordi and <;ir.(. of Toronto, l»nt. (heir 
nnnd«!rtt alt^ij^Mtthcr an; l»n(. (Ik* whadow of what, 
llK;y w<;n! 0fM*(% (>ld ronil<nay, M()r;akin^' to kk*, 
one, rlay ahonl t.ho««; on (Ik; l(.iv<;r St.. Clair, whc/'<! 
\u'. had liv<'d from hin childhoorl, hhook hi^i h'-ad an 
a wand<'riti}/, mincrahh; laniily jiaiui'd \>y iiii tJKir 
wril'h'd |.oni<'H, and «aid, r<'<;lin^dy, *' I'o(»r (Jiin^'H I 
llK-y'll Koon follow (Ik; n-ht.. I r<'rrK'ird«;r vvli<fi 
tlK-n; wen; a. Iinnd»'<-d on iIk; river for twenty iIkto 
are now. 'I Ik-'/ all ^><> al. lie- liin;".. I'Vin;,.' ont. 
in th"; wet. hrin;/;! on (Ik; t.<-i lil.le (•onp'li, and they'ni 
^Mine." The Indian A^enf. for (he wewt, of UiO 



230 Indian J)ccaij oh a Jiach 

proviiK'c l<)]il III!', liowcvcr, wlicii in I'iii;^l;iM(l, lately 
lliat llicy were ki'c|iiii;j; m|i lli<'ir miinltcrs now ; hut 
I can hardly sc(! Iiow it is pcjssildr, if tlicy do not 
take more care of llicnisclvcs. TIk; very nioffiisins 
tlii'v wear lor sliocs arc (it, in my o|)inion, to kill 
uny oiK^ — nici'c rovcrinn^s of deer Icatlicr, wliicli 
Koak np water like l)lottine;-|)a|)t'r, and kccj) tlicm 
us if perpetually standing:; in a ])ool. 'J'lien tliey ^et 
spirits (roMi tlie storekeepers, in spite of C!very effort 
on file jtart of n;()vernnient to pr(!V(!nt it, and tliey 
ofti-n snller sneli jii-ivations lor want of food as nuist 
tell fearl'idU' on tlnlr lifailli. 1 liave ol'len watched 
them passing; on jionii's or a-foot ; if the lormer, tho 
scpiaws sittinn; eross-|en;<_red on tli(! hare hacks, liko 
ni'-n, with t heir ehildren round them, and e;uidin<r 
tln^i'- animals hy ii i'o|)o halter; tiu' men carryinf; 
only !i ^un, if they were rich enough lo have one; 
and I liavo thou<j;ht of the contrast hetwc^en tlicir 
preseijt state and the story of their ninnheis and 
fierceness, as handed down in the old French nai'ra- 
tives of two hundred years ao;<) ; how they kept tho 
P'reneli in pcipetual fear, hurnin^ their houses and 
even their towns ; how the woofls swarmed, in dilfer- 
ent parts, with tlieir different indep(!ndent nations 
— The llnrons, th(' Al<i;oncpiins, the Iroquois, the 
Ojihheways — and how, in later years, they y)layed 
8o terrihle a part in the Freiudi and American wars 
with Great Hiitain. Tlu^y seem like snow in sum- 
mer, when only a patch lies hero and there, await- 
ing sjx'cdy disa[)i)earance, of all that covered hill 



A llctjcd Innocence of Savatje hlfe. 237 

anfl valley in its season. Some tribes, indet.-d, liavo 
jKissefl away alto;i;etlier sinec; tlie first lan(rni;f of 
Euroixians on tin; eoiitiiient. Tlioso at N<»nantutn, 
ill jMassaeliusetts, lor w lioin the ^reat missionary, 
Joliii FJiot, translated the liihietwo hundred years 
a«ro, are all f^one, so that the hook whieh cnice 
«j)oke to iheni of the world to come, and a eo])y of 
which still survives in the museum at Jifjston, n(iw 
li(!S of)en without a livin^i; creature wlio can read it. 
'J'Ik; Mandaiis, a ^reat trihe in the western prairies 
— the only trihe, indeed, of whom I liave heard, 
amonj^ the Indians of the i)resent day, as huilding 
re^riilar fortifii-d and inTnianent villages and towns, 
liave been entirely swej)t off within tin; last thirty 
vears by the snialiiiox, whieh was bi-oii^Iit among 
tliern by 8om<; poor liad<r. 

It is a striking contradietion to what we somo- 
titncs liear of the ha|)|)y innocence of savage life, 
that tlie Indians, when they had all the country to 
themselves, were continually at war with one 
another. The Mohawks, who lived in the north- 
ern part of th(i Unitcid States, seem especially to 
liave be(;n (riven to strife, often leaving their own 
side of the great lakes to make desolating inroads 
into Canada, until their naiiK; became such a word 
of terror that tin; veiy mention of it spread alarm 
in an eneainpinent. Even at this day, I have been 
assured that t;o raise; the cry of" tlu; Mohawks are 
coming," would strike; a delirinin of panic through 
a whole setthincnt. 'i'liey seem to think tlxy aro 



288 Tlie Mohawks. 

still somewhere not far off, and may reappear at 
any moment. But though the Moliawks may have 
\('\\ so bU)od-stained a memory of themselves, it may 
be safely said that there was hardly one tribe bettei" 
than another. The ])aiiOS of the old chroniclers 
tire red with the continual record of their univer- 
sal conflicts. At the same time, it is curious, 
fts showing how widely-spread the terrors of 
the Mohawk name came to be, that the dissolute 
young men of Addison's day, who were wont to 
Hnd pleasure in acts of violence and terror in the 
streets of London by night, called themselves 
" Mohocks." The French appear to have them- 
selves been in |)art to blame for their sufferings 
from the Indians, from the wars they excited 
between I'ival nations, and the readiness with 
which they furnished their allies with the means 
of destruction. The passions thus kindled too often 
recoiled upon themselves. Their traders had no 
scruples in supplying to any extent the three great 
cravings of an Indian — rum, tobacco, and scalping- 
knives — the first of which led, in innumerable 
cases, to the too ready use of the last. A scalping- 
knife, by the way, is an ugly weapon, with a curved 
blade like an old-fashioned razor, but sharp at the 
point, and was used to cut off the skin fi'om the 
top of a dead enemy's head, with the hair on it, to 
presei*ve as a proof of their warlike exploits. The 
number of scalps any warrior possessed being liiailed 
as the measure of his renown in his tribe, the desire 



A Narrow Eacape. 239 

for them hecanic as much a passion with an Indian 
as the \yish for the Victoria Cross with a British 
soldier, and raised an ahnost ungovernable excite- 
ment in their breasts when an o})])ortunity for 
gratifying it offered itself. A story is told of a 
British officer who Avas travelling many years ago 
in America, with an Indian for his guide, waking 
suddenly one morning and finding him standing 
over him in a state of frenzy, his features working 
in the conflict of overjiowering passions like those 
of one possessed, his knife in his hand, ready, if the 
evil spirit triumphed, to destroy his master for the 
sake of his scalp. The officer's waking, happily 
broke the spell, and the Indian filing himself at the 
feet of his intended victim, told him his temptation, 
and rejoiced that he had escaped. He had seen 
him playing with his long soft hair, he said, and 
could not keep from thinking what a nice scalp it 
would furnish, till he had all but murdered him to 
get it." * 

That the very name of " Indian " should have 
filled the heart of all who heard it in old times with 
horror is not to be wondered at. However miser- 
able they may be now, in great part through their 
constant wars among themselves, they were fright- 
fully cruel and bloodthirsty savages when their 
nation's tribes were numerous. We have little idea, 

* The ancient Scythians, also, scalped their enemies. (Hero- 
dotus, Bk. iv. 64.) The Indians are only Scythians or Tartars 
who have fallen from the pastoral to the hunting life- 



240 Narrative of Father Jogiies. 

from anything Canada now offers, as to tlieir man 
ners and habits, or their character, in the days of 
tlieir iierce })o\vcr ; bnt it cannot be saiil that tliis 
is owing to their being civihzed, or to their having 
become more humane. They are still as wild, to 
a large extent, as the wild beasts of the woods, in 
all their habits — still wanderers — still idle and 
thriftless — still without any arts — and still with- 
out any thing like national progress. It rises only 
from tlieir being a crushed and dispirited remnant, 
who have lost the boldness of their ancestors, and 
are fairly cowed and broken by a sense of their 
weakness. Out of tlie reach of civilization they 
are still the same as ever ; and what that was in 
the days when they were the lords of Canada, we 
may judge from the accounts left by the French 
missionaries, who then lived among them. The 
following narrative, which 1 translate from its quaint 
old French, lias not, 1 believe, been j)rinted before 
in English, and takes us most vividly back to those 
bvo;one times.* As a Protestant, I do not agree 
with every thing that it contains, but you can 
remember that it is the narrative of a Jesuit priest. 
Father Jogues was of a good family of the town 
of Orleans, in France, and was sent to Canada by 
the general of his order in 163G. He went up to the 
country of the Ilurons the same year, and stayed 



* " Re'ations des Jesuites dans la Nouvelle France." (^a* 
l)ec, 1853 



Narrative of Father Joyues. 241 

there till June, 10-4:2, when lie was sent to Quehec 
on the affairs of" the " great and laborious niissiun " 
among that people. Father Lallernaiit, at that 
time suj)erior oC the mission, sent for him, and pro- 
posed the voyagf, which was a terrible task, owing 
to the difficulty of the roads, and very daniierous 
from the risk of ambuscades of the Iroquois, who 
massacred every year a number of the Indians allied 
with the French. Pie proceeds to say, — 

" The pro})osition being made to me, I embraced 
it with all my heart. Behold us, then, on the way, 
and in dangers of every kind. We had to disembark 
forty times, and forty times to carry our canoes, and 
all our baggage, past the currents and rajjids which 
we met in a voyage of about three hundred leagues; 
and althoujih the savai-es who conducted us were 
very expert, >ve could not avoid the frequent up- 
setting of our canoes, accompanied with great danger 
to our lives, and the loss of our little hiooao-e. At 
last, twenty-three days after our departure from 
the Plurons, we arrived, very weary, at Three 
Rivers, whence we descended to Quebec. Our 
business being completed in a fortnight, we kept 
the feast of St. Ignatius ; and the next day, the 
1st of August, 1612, left Three Rivers to retrace 
our steps to the country Avhence we had come, 
The first day was favorable to us ; the second, 
we fell into the hands of the Iroquois. We Ke':o 
f( rty in number, divided among different can«*08 

21 



242 Narrative of Father Jogiies. 

and tliat wliicli caniod the advance guard having 
discovered, on the banks of the great river, some 
tracks of" men's feet newly impressed on the sand 
and clay, made it known. When we had landed, 
some said they were traces of an enemy, others 
■were sure they were the footmarks of Algonquins, 
our allies. In this contention of opinion Eustache 
Ahatsistari, to whom all the others deferred on 
account of his deeds of arms and his bravery, cried 
out — 'Whether they are friends or enemies does 
not matter ; I see by their tracks that they are not 
more in number than om'selves; let us advance, 
and fear nothini;.' 

" We had hardly gone on a half league when the 
enemy, hidden in the grass and brush rose, with a 
loud cry, discharging on our canoes a perfect hail 
of bullets. The noise of their arquebuses so terri- 
fied a part of our Ilurons, that they abandoned tlieir 
canoes, and their arms, and all their goods, to save 
themselves by flight into the depths of the woods. 
This volley did us little harm ; no one lost his life. 
One Huron only had his hand pierced by a ball, 
and our canoes were broken in several places. 
There were four Frenchmen of us, one of whom 
being in the rear-guard, saved himself with the 
Hurons, Avho fled before approaching the enemy. 
Eight or ten Christian catechumens joined us, and 
having got them to offer a short prayer, they made 
head courageously against the enemy, and though 
they wvere thirty men against a dczen or fourteen. 



Narrative of Father Jotjues. 243 

our i)Oi)|)l(i siistuliied thoir attack valiantly. But 
peiveiving that another band uf forty Irocjuois, who 
were in anibusji on the other side of the river, were 
crossing to i'all on them, they lost heart, and, lilvC 
those who had been less engaged, they fled, abandon- 
ing their comrades in the melee. One Frenchman 
— Rene Goupil — since dead, being no longer 
supported by those who followed liim, was taken, 
with some Hurons who had proved the most cou- 
rageous. I saw this disaster from a place which 
effectually concealed me from the enemy, the thickets 
and reeds furnishing a perfect screen, but the thought 
of thus turning it to account never entered my mind. 
Could I, I said to myself, leave our French, and 
these good neophytes, and these poor catechumens, 
without giving them the lielps with which the true 
Church of God has intrusted me ? Flight seemed 
to me horrible. It is necessary, said I to myself, 
that my body should suffer the fire of this world to 
deliver these poor souls fi'om the flames of Hell — 
it is necessary that it should die a momentary death 
to procure them life eternal. 

"My conclusion being thus taken without any 
great struggle in my mind, I called one of the 
Iroquois who was left behind to guard the prisoners. 
He, seeing me, was at first afraid to approach, fear- 
ing an ambush. ' Approach,' said I, ' fear nothing; 
conduct me to the French and Hurons you hold 
captive.' He advances, and having seized me, adds 
me to the number of those who, in a worldly i oint 



244 Narrative of Father Jur/ues. 

of view, would be regarded as utterly wretched. 
Meanwliile, those who were chasing the fugitives 
led back some of them, and I confessed and made 
Christians of those who were not so. At last they 
led back that brave chief, Eustache, who cried out 
on seeinii me, that he had sworn to live and die 
with me. Another Frenciinjan, named William 
Couture, seeing the Ilurons take to flight, saved 
himself, like them, in the forest ; but remorse hav- 
ing seizeJ hiui at the thoufilit of abandoning his 
friends, and the fear of being thought a coward 
tormenting him, he turned to come back. Just 
then five Iroquois came upon him, one of whom 
aimed at him but without effect, his piece having 
snapped, on which the Frenchman instantly shot 
him dead. His musket was no sooner discliaro;ed 
than the four were on him in a moment, and having 
strip])ed him perfectly naked, wellnigh miu'dered 
liim W' ith their clubs, pulled out his nails with their 
teeth, pounding the bleeding tips to cause greater 
agony ; and, finally, after stabbing him with a knife 
in one hand, led him to us in a sad plight, bound 
fast. On my seeing him, I ran from my guards and 
fell on his neck, but the Iroquois, seeing us thus ten- 
derly affected, though at first astonished, looked on 
in silence, till, all at once, thinking, perhaps, I was 
praising him for having killed one of their number, 
they ran at me with blows of their fists, with clubs, 
and with the stocks of their arquebuses, felling mo 
to the ground half dead. AVhen I began to breathe 



Narraiive of Father Jocjues. 245 

ngain, those who, liitlierto, liad not injured mo. 
came up and tore out the nails of my fingers Avith 
tlieir teeth, and tlian bit, one after another, the 
ends of the two forefingers tlius stri])ped of tlioir 
nails, causing me great pain — grinding and crann( li- 
ing them to pieces, indeed, as if they had been 
j)()unded between two stones, so that fraoments of 
the bones came out. They treated the good Rene 
Goupil in the same way, but they did no harm for 
the time to Hurons, so enraged were they at the 
Frencli for not accepting peace on their terms the 
year before. 

" All being at last assembled, and their scouts 
liaving returned from chasing the fugitives, the 
barbarians divided their booty among themselves, 
rejoicing with loud cries. While they were thus 
engaged I revisited all the captives, baptizing those 
who had not been so before, and encouraging the 
poor creatures, assuring them that tlieir reward 
would far surpass their tortures. I perceived after 
making this round that w^e were twenty-two in 
number, not counting three Hurons killed on the 
spot. 

" Behold us, then, being led into a country truly 
strange to us. It is true that, during the thirteen 
days we w^ere on this journey, I suffered almost 
insupportable bodily torments and mortal anguish 
of spirit ; hunger, burning heat — besides the im- 
precations and threats of these leopards in human 
i/hape — and in addition to these miseries, the pain 



21 * 



24G Narrative of Father Jogxies. 

of our wounds, wliicli, for want of dressing, rotted 
till they bred worms, caused us nuicli distress; but 
all these things seemed light to me, in comparison 
with my internal suffering at the sight of our first 
and most ardent Cliristians amoufj the Ilurons in 
such circumstances. I liad thouglit they would be 
jjillars of the new-born Church, and I saw them 
become victims of these bloodtliirsty savages. 

" A week aftei our departure from the banks of 
the St. Lawrence, we met two hundred Iroquois in 
eager searcli for Frenchmen, or tlieir Indian allies, 
wlierever they could meet them. Unha])pily, it is 
a belief among these barbarians, that those who are 
going to war are prosperous in proportion as they 
are cruel to their enemies ; and, I assure you, they 
made us feel the effect of this unfortunate opinion. 
Having perceived us they first thanked the sun for 
having caused us to fall into their hands, and tliose 
of their countrymen, and then fired a salute in honor 
of their victory. This done, tliey went into the 
woods, to seek for clubs or thorns, as their fancy 
led them ; then, thus armed, they formed a lane, a 
hundred on each side, and made us pass, naked, 
down this bitter path of anguish, each one trying 
who could strike oftenest and hardest. As I had 
to pass last, I was the most exposed to their rage, 
but I had hardly got half through, before I fell 
under the weight of this hail of reiterated blows ; 
nor did I try to rise ; partly, indeed, because I 
wished to die on the spot. Seeing me down, they 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 247 

threw themselves on me, and God alone knows the 
length of time I endured this, and the number of 
blows which were inflicted on my body, but suffer- 
ings borne for His glory are full of joy and honor I 
The savages, seeing I had fallen, not by chance, 
but that I wished to die, took a cruel compassion 
on me, lifting me up, in the intention of keeping 
me so that I should reach their coinitry alive, and 
then led me, all bleeding, to an open knoll. "When 
I had come to myself they made me descend, tor- 
mented me in a thousand ways, made me the butt 
of their taunts, and recommenced beating me, let- 
ting off another hail of blows on my head, neck, 
and body. They then burned one finger, and 
cranched another with their teeth, and pressed and 
twisted those which were already mangled, with 
the rage of demons. They tore my wounds open 
with their nails, and when my strength failed they 
put fire to my arms and thighs. My companions 
were treated pretty nearly like myself. One of 
the barbarians, advancing with a great knife, seized 
my nose in his left hand to cut it off, but, though 
he attempted this twice, he was hindered in some 
way from completing his design. Had he done it, 
they would at last have killed me, for they always 
murder those who are much mutilated. 

" Having so far satisfied their bloodthirstiness on 
our poor frames, these savages departed to pursue 
their route, while we continued ours. 

" On the tenth da}^, we reached a place where it 



248 Narratioe of Father Jogues. 

was necessary to quit tlic waterside and travel ay 
land. This journey, wliich was about four aayj 
long, was very painful, he who was appointee to 
f^uard me not being able to carry all his plunder, 
and giving me a part to carry on my back, all flayed 
as it was. We ate nothing for three days but a 
little wild fruit, which we pulled in passing. The 
heat of the sun at the height of the summer, and 
om* wounds, weakened us much, so that we had to 
walk behind the others, and they being much scat- 
tered, I told Rend he shoujd try to save himself; 
but he would not leave me, though he could easily 
have got off. I, myself, could not think of forsak- 
ing my poor little flock. On the eve of the 
Assumption, we reached a small stream, a quarter 
of a league from the first town of the Iroquois, 
where we found the banks lined on both sides with 
a number of men armed with clu1>s, which they 
used on us with their wonted ferocity. There 
were only two of my nails remaining, and these 
they wrenched off with their teeth, tearing away 
the flesh underneath, and bearing it to the very 
bones with their nails, which they let grow very 
Jono;. 

" After they had thus satisfied their cruelty, they 
led us in trium])h into this first village, all the 
young people being ranged in rows outside the 
gates, armed, some with sticks, others with iron 
ramrods, which they get from the Dutch.* They 

* Probably the Dutch settlers in what is now the western parj 
of New York. State. 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 249 

made us march — a Frenchman at the head, another 
in the middle, of tlic Hurons, and myself the last. 
We were made to follow one another at equal dis- 
tances, and, that our tormentors might be the bettei 
able to beat us at their ease, some Iroquois threw 
themselves into our line to keep us from running off, 
or avoiding any blows. 1 was naked, with the excep- 
tion of a shirt, like a criminal, and the others were 
entirely naked, except poor llen^ Goupil, to whom 
they showed the same favor as to me. We were 
hardly able to reach the stage prepared for us in 
the middle of the village, so fearfully beaten were 
we ; our bodies livid and our faces bloody. Nothing 
white remained visible of Rent's face but his eyes, 
he was so disfigured. When mounted on the 
stage Ave had a short respite, except from their 
violent words, which did not hurt us, but it was 
soon over. A chief cried out that they must ' fon- 
dle the Frenchman,' which was no sooner said than 
done — a wretch, leaping on the scaffold and giving 
each of us three great blows with a stick, but not 
touching the Hurons. Meanwhile, the others 
who were standing close to us, drawing their 
knives, treated me as the chief — that is, used me 
worst — the deference paid me by the Hurons hav- 
ing procured me this sad honor. An old man took 
my left hand, and ordered an Algonquin woman to 
cut off one of my fingers, which she did, after some 
reluctance, when she saw she would be forced to obey, 
— cutting off my left thumb. They did tliis to the 



250 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

others also. I picked up my thumb from the scaf- 
fold, but one of my French companiojis told me 
tiuit if they saw me with it they Avould make me 
eat it, and swallow it raw, and that I had better 
throw it away, which 1 did. They used an oyster 
shell to cut the thumbs of the others, to give them 
more pain. The blood flowing so that we were like 
to faint, an Iroquois tore off a piece of my shirt and 
tied up the wounds, and this was all the bandage 
or dressino; we got. When evenino; came we were 
brouo-ht down to be led to the wigwams to be made 
sport for the children. They gave us a little boiled 
Indian corn for food, and made us lie down on a 
piece of bark, tying our arms and logs to four 
stakes fived in the ground, like a St. Andrew's 
cross. The children, emulating the cruelty of 
their parents, threw burning embers on our stom- 
achs, taking pleasure in seeing our flesh scorch and 
roast. What hideous nights ! To be fixed in one 
painful position, unable to turn or move, incessantly 
attacked by swarms of vermin, with our bodies 
smarting from recent wounds, and from the sufi^'er- 
ing caused by older ones in a state of putrefaction, 
with the scantiest food to keep up what life was 
left ; of a truth these torments were terrible, but 
God is great ! At sunrise, for three following days, 
they led us back to the scaffold, the nights being 
passed as I have described." 

Thus far we have given the father's own words, 
and must condense what remains to be told : — 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 251 

After three days were over tlie victims were 
led to two other villages, and exposed naked, undef 
a burning sun, with their wounds untended, to tha 
same miseries as they had passed through in the 
first. At the second, an Indian, perceiving that 
poor Couture had not yet lost a finger, though his 
hands were all torn to pieces, made him cut off his 
own forefincrer with a blunt knife, and when he 
could not sever it entirely, the savage took and 
twisted it, and pulled it away by main force, drag- 
ging out a sinew a palm in length, the poor arm 
swelling instantly with the agony. At the third 
village, a new torture was added, by hanging poor 
Jogues by his arms, so high that his feet did not 
touch the ground ; lu"s entreaty to be released only 
making them tie him the tighter, till a strange In- 
dian, apparently of his own accord, mercifully cut 
him down. At last some temporary suspension of 
his sufferings approached. Fresh prisoners arrived, 
and a council determined that the French should 
be spared, in order to secure advantages fi'om their 
countrymen. Their hands being useless from mu- 
tilation, they had to be fed like infants, but some 
of the women, true to the kindly nature of their 
:jex, took pity on their sufferings, and did what they 
could to relieve them. Meanwhile, Couture was 
sent to another village, and Piere Jogues and Rene 
remained together. 

Unfortunately, however, of the three, only Cou- 
ture could reckon upon the preservation of his life. 



252 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

It was the custom with the savages, that when a 
prisoner was handed over to some particular Indian, 
to supply a blank in his household, caused by the 
death of any of its members in battle, he was forth- 
with adopted as one of the tribe, and was thence- 
forth safe ; but as long as he was not thus bestowed, 
he might be killed, at the caprice of any one, with- 
out the least warning. Of the three, only Couture 
had been thus guaranteed security of life ; the two 
others felt that their existence still hung by a hair. 
Nor was this long without being put to a sad proof, 
for Ren6 — fiill of zeal for what he thought would 
benefit the souls of the young Indians — being in 
the habit of making on them the sign of the cross, 
had taken a child's hand before making the sign on 
its brow, when an old man, seeing him, turned to 
its fiither, and told him he should kill that dog, for 
lie was doing to his boy w^hat the Dutch had told 
them would not only do no good, but would do 
harm. The advice was speedily acted on; two 
blows of an axe on his head, as the two were re- 
turning from prayer outside the village, stretched 
the martyr lifeless, and poor Rent's body was 
then dragged to the bed of a rivulet, from which a 
heavy storm washed it, through the night, so that 
his companions could never again find it. This 
was in September, 1642, two months after their 
leaving Three Rivers. The position of father 
Jogues after this murder may easily be imagined. 
His life, he tells us, was as uncertain as the stay of 



Narrative of Father Joc/ues. 253 

a bird on a branch, from which it may fly at any 
moment. But the good man liad devotion suffi- 
cient to bear him up, amidst all evil and danger. 
His mind, kept in constant excitement, found sup- 
port in comforting dreams that soothed his slum- 
bers. In these visions he would see, at times, the 
village in which he lived, and in which he had suf- 
fered so much, changed to a scene of surpassing 
glory, with the words of Scripture, written over its 
gates, " They shall praise Thy name ; " and at 
other times his thoughts in sleep would be bright- 
ened by the belief that the agonies he had endured 
were sent by his Father in heaven to fit him for 
eternal joy, so that, he tells us, he would often say 
of them when he awoke, " Thy rod and thy staff 
they comfort me." 

At the beginning of Avinter he was, at last, given 
to a family as their slave, to attend them in the 
chase, to which they went off thirty leagues, stay- 
ino- two months at it. Cold thouo;h it then was, his 
only clothing all this time was a shirt and a poor 
pair of drawers, with leggings, and ragged shoes of 
soft leather. The thickets tore his skin, and his 
feet were cut by the stones, clods, and sharp edges 
of ice. Finding him useless in hunting, they set 
him to woman's work, requiring him to gather and 
bring in logs for the fire. Half naked, chapped and 
hacked in every part by the cold, this was a change 
he rejoiced in, as it gave him the great advantage 
of privacy, which, he tells us, he employed for eight 

22 



254 Narrative of Father Jogue». 

and tei». lionrs togctlier in prayer, before a rude 
cross wliicli he luul set uj). But liis niastei's having 
found out how lie spent liis time, broke liis cross, 
felled trees close to him to terrify him, and when he 
returned to the wigwam with his load, played him 
a thousand cruel tricks, to get him to desist. One 
would level his bow at liim, as if about to shoot 
liim ; another would swing his axe over his head, 
and tell him he must quit his channs. They de- 
clared that his soi-cei'ies sj)oiled their hunting ; and 
at last conceived such a hoi-ror of him, that they 
thought his touch pollution, and would not let him 
use any thiiiii in the wi<rwams. ILid he been willinfj 
to join them in their ways, it would have fared dif- 
ferently with him ; but, starving as he had been, 
he refused to partake of the venison which they had 
in abundance, because they offered to the spirit of 
the chase all that they took. As soon as he knew 
of this, he told them plainly he could not eat what 
liad been devoted to the devil ; and fell back on his 
boiled Indian corn. 

Having learned that some old people were about 
to return to the village, Jogues asked permission to 
go thither with them. They sent him, therefore, 
but without a tinder-box, and without shoes, though 
the snow was now very deep on the ground, it 
being in December. Moreover, they made him 
carry a huge burden of smoked meat for the thirty 
leagues of journey they had to take, weak and 
wretched tl ough he was. At one place, crossing a 



Narrative of Father Joyues. 255 

deep rh'ulet, over a felled tree, a squaw, who had an 
iiifkiit and a heavy load on her back, and was in 
poor health, slipped off and fell into the stream ; on 
which J(j<^ues, seeing that her burden was making 
her sijik, threw oil' his own, and plunged in, and 
cutting away the thongs, carried her to the bank, 
whei-e the prompt kindling of a fire by the Indians, 
alone, saved the three from bein*; frozen to death. 
The little child being very ill, he tells us " he ba[j- 
tized it forthwith ; and in truth," he adds, " sent 
it to Paradise, as it died two days after." How- 
ever we may differ fnjin him as to the efficacy of 
his act, we cannot withhold our admiration of the 
noble s])irit that made him cling to what he thought 
a work of duty and love, even in his greatest trials. 
He had hardly reached the village when he was 
sent back again with a sack of corn, so heavy, that 
what with weakness and tlie slipperiness of the 
ground, he lost his way, and found himself back 
again in the camp before he knew v^'here he was. 
This misadventure was a new cause of suffering for 
him. Every ill name that could be thought of was 
given him, and, what was much worse, he was put 
into a wigwam with the same man who had torn 
out his nails, and who was now lying in the utmost 
filth and wretchedness, through the effects of some 
putrid disease. For fifteen days he had to serve as 
a slave amidst these horrors, until his own^fii, re- 
turning from the chase, took him to tluir own 
dwelling. 



256 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

During the winter, lie managed, at great risk, to 
visit tlie different villages of the Indians, to encour- 
age the Huron captives. His patience, meanwhile, 
was gaining him the respect even of such monsters 
as these. Tlie motlier of his host seemed touched 
by his bearing, and this was increased by his kind- 
ness to one who had been among his most terrible 
enemies, but Avho was now lying covered with 
sores. Jogues visited him frequently, consoled him 
in his illness, and often went to seek berries for him 
to refresh him. About March he was taken by 
his hosts to their fishing-ground — a deliverance 
from the noise of the village which was delightful 
to him, though he still had the same work of col- 
lectinc and brinffincr in wood for the fire. He was 
now treated comparatively kindly, but even here 
he was in danger. A war party had been gone for 
six months, and not having been heard of, wera 
thought to have been destroyed, and this was, by 
at least one, who had a relative with it, attributed 
to the enchantments of the missionary. But, pro- 
videntially, the day before he was to have been killed, 
the warriors arrived, bringing twenty prisoners, 
in torturing whom Jogues was forgotten. They 
forthwith began public rejoicings ; scorching, roast- 
ing, and, at last, eating these poor victims. " I 
think," says Jogues, " that the devils in hell must 
do something the same, at the coming of souls con 
demned to their flames." 

At the end of April, a Sokokiois chief made hia 



Narrative of Father Joguks. 267 

appearance in the Iroquois country, charged with 
presents, wliich he came to offer for the ransom of 
the missionary, who was known among the tribes 
by the name of Ondesson. The presents, he said, 
came from the French, and he had a letter from 
the governor for Ondesson. This embassy raised 
the credit of Jogues, and got him, for the time, 
some pity ; but tiiey took the presents, and kept 
him still in ca[)tivity. At last, having been sent, 
in 1643, to a fishery, which was near a station of 
the Dutch, he was rescued from the clutches of his 
tormentors by their head man, who, however, hav- 
ing left shortly after, handed him to the care of a 
subordinate, at whose hands he suffered extremely 
from hunger and thirst, and from the fear of falling 
again into the power of the Iroquois. After a time, 
he was taken down the Hudson to what was then 
the settlement of Manhattan, but is now the city 
of New York, and from thence sailed to France, by 
way of England. On the 15th January, 1644, he 
returned to the colleo;e of his order, at Rennes. In 
the spring of 1G45, he was ready, once more, to 
return to Canada, and sailed from Rochellc to 
Montreal ; and peace having been made in the 
interval with the Iroquois, he was chosen as the 
pioneer of a new mission among them. On the 
16th May, 1646, in company with French officials, 
he set out on a preliminary journey, to make the 
necessary preparations, and to ratify the peace, 
returnino; to Three Rivers in the end of June. 
2a* 



258 Narrative of Father Jogues. 

Resolved to lose no time, now that the way was 
clear, in organizing his mission, though with a pre- 
sentiment that it would end in his deatli, he pro- 
ceeded, three weeks after, onrn more on his way to 
the scene of his former sufferings, in company with 
a young Frenchman, in a canoe, taking with him 
some Hurons as guides. But he went only to 
meet the death he had forboded. He had hardly 
reached the Iroquois country when he and his 
companion were attacked, plundered, stripped 
naked, and subjected to the same menaces and 
blows which he had experienced before. A letter 
from the Dutch traders, some time after, related 
how their captoi*s, on the very day of their arrival, 
told them they would be killed, adding, that they 
might be of good cheer, for they would not burn 
them, but would simply cut off their heads, and 
stick them on the palisades of the village, to let 
other Frenchmen, whom they expected to take, see 
them on their coming. The immediate cause of 
their murder was, that the Indians insisted that 
Jocrues had left the devil among some luggacje he 
had given them to keep for him, and that their 
crop of Indian corn had thus been spoiled. On 
the 18th October, 1646, the end of his suffei'ings 
came at last. Having been called from his wig- 
wam to the public lodge on that evening, to sup- 
per, an Indian, standing behind the door, split his 
skull, and that of his companion, with an axe ; and 
oc the morrow, the gate of the village was gar- 



Narrative of Father Jogues. 259 

nished with their disfigured heads. Only one 
division of the nation, however — that with whicK 
he hved, whose distinguishing sign or title was that 
of the Bear — seems to have been privy to their 
murder. The other two — the divisions of the 
Wolf and the Tortoise — resented the massacre, as 
if committed on two members of their own tribes. 

And thus we take leave of the Jesuit martyr and 
his remarkable story. 



260 The Medicine-Man, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The medicine-man. — Painted faces. — Medals. — An Embassy.— 
Religious notions. — Feast of the dead. — Christian Indians.— 
Visit to the Indians on Lake Huron. — Stolidity of the Indians.— 
Uenry exorcises an Indian's rifle. 

THE great man among all tribes of Indians that 
are not very greatly changed is the medicine- 
man — a kind of sorcerer, who acts at once as priest 
and physician. Arrayed in a strange dress of bear- 
skins, or painted leather, with his head hidden in 
the scalp of some animal, or decorated with an 
extraordinary crest of feathers, this dignitary still 
reigns with more power than the chiefs in the out- 
lying portions of British America. Their modes 
of treatment are strange enough. A poor infant, 
in one of the settlements, lay ill of fever, and the 
mother, not knowing what to do for it, summoned 
the medicine-man to her aid. He came with his 
assistant, in full costume, and, having entered the 
wigwam where the poor little creature lay, in a 
bark cradle, filled with the dust of rotten wood, 
began his doctoring by hollowing a mystic circle in 
the ground round it, within which none but those 
he permitted were to enter. Then, taking a drum 



TJlc Medicine-Man. 261 

which he liad with him, or rather, a double tam- 
bourine, filled inside with little stones, he commenced 
rattling it over the child, singing meanwhile with 
all his might. The noise was enough to have 
given a fever to a person in health, and was fit to 
have killed a sick baby outright ; but he kept 
thumping away, first at its ears — the little crea- 
ture crying with fright — then at its back and its 
sides, till the sound was wellnigh deafening. Next 
came a mysterious course of deep breathing from 
the bottom of his stomach, all round the child's 
body, which completed his treatment. Strange to 
Bay, the child got better, and of course the faith in 
the conjurer greatly increased. " There was a 
black thing in its inside," he said, " which needed 
to be driven out, and he had done it by the noise 
and singing." It must, indeed, have been in spite 
of him, instead of by his help, that the poor child 
was restored. 

The dress of the Indians varies at different times, 
and according to the degree of civilization they have 
reached. Here and there you meet with one who 
has adopted European clothing, but these are rarely 
seen. They held a feast on a mound, by the road- 
side, in the summer after we went to the river — 
men, women, and children mustering to take part 
in it. Their clothing, except that of one or two, 
was about the same as usual — that is, a shirt and 
leggings, or the shirt only ; but their faces showed 
a most elaborate care in " the getting up." Paint 



262 Indian Dancinj. 

of different colors was lavishly expended on them. 
One had his nose a bright blue ; his eyes, eyeJids, 
and cheeks, black ; and the rest of his face a lively 
red. Others had streaks of red, black, and blue, 
drawn from the ears to the mouth. Others were 
all black, except the top of the forehead, and the 
parts round the ears, and the tip of the chin. Two 
lads amused me by the pride they evidently took in 
their faces ; that of the one being ornamented by a 
stroke of vermilion, broad and bright, upward and 
downward, from each corner of the moiith, in a 
slanting direction ; while that of the other rejoiced 
in a broad streak of red and blue, straight across 
his cheeks, from each side of his nose. The 
solemnities consisted of speeches from their orators, 
which were fluent enough, and were accompanied 
with a great deal of gesticulation, but were totally 
incomprehensible to me. Then followed a dance, 
in which all the men joined ; some women, sitting 
in the middle, beating a rude drum with a bone, 
while the men formed in a circle outside, and each 
commenced moving slowly round, lifting his legs as 
high as possible, at the risk, I thought, of throwing 
the dancer before him off his balance, by some 
unhappy accident, which, however, they were skil- 
ful enough to avoid. Meanwhile, the orchestra 
kept up a monotonous thumping, accompanied by 
a continuous grunting noise, which passed for sing- 
ing. There could be nothing more ludicrous than 
to see them with all solemnity pacing round, each 



Indian Loyalty. 263 

with a leg in the air, as if they had been doing 
sometliing awfully important. Dancing ended, 
the reward of their labors followed. A huge kettle, 
hanging from a stout pole, over a fire close by, 
proved to have for its contents the carcass of a 
large dog — one of the many who prowl round all 
wigwams — but it must have been fattened for 
the occasion, as they are lean enough generally. 
Hands and mouths were the only implements for 
the repast, but they served the purpose. The poor 
dog made its way, with amazing rapidity, down the 
crowd of hungry throats ; but the sight so disgusted 
me that I hastily left them. 

The Indians are very loyal in every part of 
British America. A number of old men are still 
ahve who hold medals for their services in the war 
of 1812-14 with the United States, and very proud 
they are of them. I remember finding a deputation 
from some tribe returnincr from a visit to the Gov- 
ernor-General, on board one of the lake steamers, 
and was struck with the great silver medal, almost 
like a porter's badge, which the eldest wore on his 
breast, with the well-known profile of King George 
III. on it. By the way, one of the three or four 
Indians of the party was the handsomest man of 
the race I ever saw — tall, of full figure, with ex- 
quisite features, and soft curling hair. He must 
surely have been partly white. The dress they wore 
showed strikingly the meeting of the old wildnesa 
and the new civilization. That of the old bearer 



of the medal ccMisisted of a Terr l»oad4»iiiiiDed, 
high-crowned, and Innoaui-belted black hat — such 
a hat as I never saw except xmoag the Indians, 
and wh::'' ^ - have been made from a pattern 
speciaDv _ , to {Mease them bv its extiaordi- 
nary size; a Hght Wown shabby frock-coat, with 
\:rr short tail s and large brass buttons; a great 
'.v:.::e Uanket thrown over it, and a pair of ordinary 
trowsers, with moccasins on his feet, ccMnpleting the 
costume. There was a great sht in his ears for 
ornaments ; a string of wampom hung round his 
neck, and in one hand lav a long Indian pipe, while, 
from the other, the skin c^ a fox, made into a 
tobacco-pouch, hung at his side. One uf the others 
had leggings instead of trowsers, with broad bands 
of beads at the knees to &sten them, and a bag 
about the size of a ladv's r aih a deep fringe 

of green threads nine or : ~ long? ^ round 

it, hung from his arm. I have no doubt that even 
the feeble remnant of the race that still survives 
would at once offer to fight for our Queen if their 
services should ever trnfortunately be needed. 
'♦ Their great mother across the waters " is the object 
erf" as much loyal pride to them as to any of her 
countless subjects. Some years ago a United States 
officer was removing some Tnf^ians from the settled 
parts to the other side of the ^lississippi, and had 
encamped one day, when he saw a party approach- 
ing. Taking out his glass, he found that they were 
Indians, and forthwith sent off an Indian from hit 



Religious Notions. 265 

own band to meet them, with the stars and stripes 
on a flag. No sooner was the repubhcan banner 
displayed, than, to the astonishment of the officer, 
the strange Indian unrolled the Red Cross of St. 
George, and held it up as that under which he 
ranged. The American A\anted him to exchanire 
flags, but he would not ; for, said ho, " I live near 
the Hudson Bay Company, and they gave me this 
flag, and told me that it came from my great mother 
across the great waters, and would protect me and 
my wife and children, wherever we might go. I 
have found it is true as the white man said, and 1 
will never part with it." 

One of the most intelligent Indians I ever met 
was a missionary among his countrymen in the Far 
West, who happened to be on a steamer with me. 
He gave me a great deal of information respecting 
the religious notions of his people, one part of which 
I thought very curious. He said that the Indians 
believed that, at death, the spirits of men went to 
the west, and came to a broad river, over which 
there was no bridge but the trunks of trees laid end- 
wise across. On the further side stretched prairies 
abounding with all kinds of game, and every possible 
attraction to the Indian, to reach which, every one, 
as he came, ventured on the perilous path that 
oflPered the means of gettino; over. But the wicked 
could not, by any means, keep their footing. The 
logs rolled about under them till they slipped into 
the river, which bore them hopelessly away. The 

23 



266 Feast of the Dead, 

good Indian, on the contrary, foimd every thing 
easy. The logs lay perfectly still beneath his tread, 
some kind influence kept him safely poised at each 
treacherous step, and he landed safe and happy, 
amidst loud welcomes, on the amber bank beyond. 
The poor creatures seem to think that their friends 
need many things after death to which they have 
been used in life. Lonely graves may be often 
seen in the woods, or, j)erhaps, they only seem 
lonely from the others having sunk down, and in 
them, as in those which are gathered together in 
tlie common burial-places of the different reserves, 
beneath a little birch-bark roof raised over them, 
the surviving friends put, periodically, presents of 
rice, tobacco, and other Indian delights. It used 
to be the habit in all parts of Canada, as I have 
been told it still is in the distant places of the Con- 
tinent, to gather all the dead of a nation together, 
from time to time, and bury them in a common 
grave. Twelve years were allowed to pass, and 
then the old men and the notables of the different 
divisions of the tribe assembled and decided when 
they would hold " the feast," for so they called it, 
so as to please each section and the allied tribes as 
well. This fixed, as all the corpses had to be 
brought to the village where the common grave 
had been dug, each family made arrangements 
respecting its dead, with a care and affection which 
were very touching. If they had parents dead in 
any part of the country, they spared no pains to 



Feast of the Bead. 2G7 

bring their bodies ; tlicy lifted tliem from their 
graves, and bore tliem on tlieir slionlders, covered 
with their best robes. On a giA'en day tlie people 
of each village went to their own cemetery, where 
the persons who had charge of it — for there were 
parties appointed to this office — raised the bodies 
in presence of the survivors, who renewed the 
grief they exhibited on the day of their first burial. 
All the corpses were ranged side by side, and, being 
uncovered, were exposed thus for a considerable 
time, that all around might see what they would 
themselves some day become. You may think what 
a sight this must have been ; some of the bodies 
mere skeletons, some like mummies, and others 
mere shapeless corruption. Those which were not 
reduced to skeletons were, after a little, stripped of 
their flesh and skin, which, with the robes in which 
they had been burled, were bvirned. The bodies 
which were still uncorrupted were merely wrapped 
in skins, but the bones, when thoroughly cleaned, 
were put in sacks or in robes, and laid on their 
shoulders, and then covered with another skin out- 
side. The perfect corpses were put on a kind of 
bier, and, with all the rest, were taken each to its 
own wigwam, where the several households held, 
each, a feast to its dead. 

They have a curious idea respecting the soul, as 
the reason of this strange custom — at least those of 
them who, not being as yet Christians, still practise 
it. They think that the dead have two souls, dis* 



268 Feast of the Dead. 

tinct and material, but each endowed witli reason. 
The one separates itself from the body at death, 
and hovers over the burial-place, till the Feast of 
the Dead, after which it is turned into a turtle- 
dove, or goes straight to the Land of Spirits. The 
other is, as it were, attached to the body, and still 
remains in the common grave, after the feast is 
over, never leaving it unless to enter the body of an 
infant, which the likeness of many of the living tc 
those who have died seems to them a proof that 
they do. 

When the feast is over, all the dead of each vil- 
lage are taken to a large wigwam, set apart for the 
purpose, and filled with poles and rods, from which 
the perfect bodies and the bags of bones are hung, 
along with countless gifts which the relatives pre- 
sent, in the name of the dead, to some of their liv- 
ing fi'iends. This display of their riches accom- 
plished, it remains only to take the ghastly loads to 
the common grave on the day ap])ointed, which 
they do with frequent cries, which they say lighten 
the weiffht and secure the bearers from disease. 
At the central rendezvous, the same hano-ino- of the 
corpses on poles, and the same display of presents, 
is again made, and, then amidst terrible cries and 
confusion, the whole are put into the general burial- 
pit, which is lined underneath with sable furs, to 
make the spirits happy in their homes in the other 
world. But they do not bury the presents with 
them, nor the outer skins in which they were wrap- 



Christian Indians. 269 

ped ; these tlicy retain for themselves. In some 
tribes, in former times, a gi'eat mound or barrow 
lieaped over tlie spot marked the resting-place of 
the multitude, in others the groxind was simj)ly 
levelled, and then, after rejoicings in tlieir own wild 
way till they were tired, the living crowd dispersed, 
each jiarty to its own village.* 

A great change has come over the customs and 
feelings of many of the Indians, since missionaries 
went among them, and though in old settlements 
you often meet Pagans even yet, there are others 
who give the best proofs that they are true Chris- 
tians. It is delightful to see them on the Sabbath, 
wending their way, calm, and in a right mind, to 
their lowly church, through the glades of the forest ; 
and wild though the sound often is, I have listened 
to their singing the glorious praises of God with an 
interest which I hardly ever felt in any more civil- 
ized gathering. One of the hymns which have been 
made expressly for them, and of which they are 
especially fond, has always struck me as particularly 
touching, by its exact appreciation of an Indian's 
feelings, and its remarkably skilful adaptation to 
their broken Enorlish. I feel sure it has never 
appeared in print before, at least in Britain, as I 
got it fi'om a missionary in Nova Scotia, who knew 
the author, himself a missionary, and told me it 

* Nothing like this is done in Canada now, so far as I know, 
but in the " iielations des Jesuites " it is spoken of as the general 
custom 

28* 



270 Indian Hymn. 

existed only in manuscript, so far as lie knew 
Here it is : 



"THP: INDIAN'S PRAYER. 

" III (ic (laik wood, no Indian nigii, 
Den me look heb'n, and send up cry, 

Upon my knee so low ; 
Dat God on liij^h, in shiny place, 
See me in ni<;ht wid tcaiy face. 
My heart, him tell me so. 

" Him send him angel, take me care. 
Him coHR' himself, and hearura prayer, 

If Indian heart do pray. 
Him see me now, him know mo here. 
Him say, ' Poor Indian, never fear, 

Me wid you night and day.' 

" So me luh God wid inside heart. 
He tight for me, he takum part. 

He sahe em life before. 
God luh poor Indian in de wood, 
And me lub He, and dat be good. 
Me pray Ilim two time more. 

" When me be old, me head be gray. 
Den Him no leab me, so Him say, 

' Mc wid you till you die.' 
Den take me up to shiny place. 
See white man, red man, black man face 
All happy 'like * on high." 



One day, in the second summer we were on tt« 

# i. e. , alike. 



Lake Huron. 271 

river, the clergyman asked me, in passing, if I 
would like to go up Lake Huron with him, on a 
missionary visit to a settlement of Indians, and t)f 
course I told him I should. It was soon settled 
when we should start, which we did in a little boat, 
two men goiiio; with us to take charoe of it. We 
had oars with us, but the boat was too heavy for 
their easy use, and we trusted to a sail, the cord 
from which one of us held in his hand, to prevent 
any sudden gust from upsetting us. We were 
soon out on the gloriovis Lake Huron, which, like 
all the gi'eat lakes, cannot be distinguished from 
the sea by ordinary eyes ; but we did not attempt 
to get out of sight of the coast, intending to run 
into it if any sudden storm should rise. As dark- 
ness set in, the sight overhead was beautiful beyond 
any thing, I think, I ever saw. The stars came 
out so large and bi'ight, that it seemed as if you 
could see behind them into the depths beyond. 
They seemed to hang down like globes of light 
from the great canopy of the heavens. It was 
deliciously calm, the soft wind from behind, as it 
gently swelled the sail, serving to make the feeling 
of repose tlie more perfect. After saihng a day 
and a night, and the half of the next day, we at 
last reached the point where we were to land — a 
narrow tongue of sand, along which a stream, flow- 
ing through an opening in the sand-hills that line 
the coast, crept into the lake. It took us the rest 
of the afternoon to row as far as we wished, and 



272 A Night of Horrors. 

to get our supper of beef and some hard eggs, with 
a cup of tea, witliout milk, wliich we got ready at 
a fire on the beucli. The water we had to use 
was our greatest trouble. It was nearly the color 
of ink, from the swamps through which it had 
flowed, and made our tea the reverse of pleasant in 
taste ; but there was no choice, so that we made 
ourselves as contented as possible. Acconmioda- 
tion for the night was soon provided by stretching 
, the sail over the mast, which was laid on two 
forked poles, a yard or so from the ground. This 
gave room for two ; the other two were to sleep 
on tlie ground without this apology for a covering 
A huge fire, kindled close to us, served to keep off 
the mosquitoes, or I'ather was intended to do so 
Wraj)ping an old buftiilo robe, or a quilt, round each 
of us, we were soon stretched out to try to get 
sleep ; but its sweet delight kept far enough from 
us all. Oh ! the horrors of that night. The mos- 
quitoes, came down like the wolves on a fold, 
piercing through smoke and fire, and searching in 
the dark but too successfully for our noses, cheeks, 
and hands. The ants, too, were in myriads, and 
made their way up our boots to any height they 
thought proper. Once in, there was no getting 
these plagues out. We rose, went through every 
form of trouble to rid ourselves of them, but some 
still remained to torment us after each efibrt. 
Then the smoke itself was fit to make one 
wretched. It swept in, in clouds, as often as the 



Negotiation with an Indian. 273 

fire was stirred. At last, however, morning came, 
and, with its first dawn, we were up for the day ; 
but what figures we presented ! ]My worthy friend's 
nose seemed to have been turned upside down 
in the night, the mosquito-bites liaving made it 
much thicker near the eyes than at the bottom. It 
was irresistibly laughable to us all, except the 
unfortunate bearer, who was really unwell, partly 
through the mosquitoes, partly through the expos- 
ure. Luckily for our breaklast, a Potowattomie 
Indian — a short old man, in a shirt, leggings, and 
moccasins, and crowned with a tremendous hat — 
came in sight as we were busy prej)aring it witli 
some more of tlic villanous water, lie was soon 
amongst us, desirino; to see what we were, and 
what we were doing, and, fortunately for us, the 
contents of the kettle attracted his attention. With 
unmistakable signs of disgust, he urged us to throw 
it out forthwith, and very kindly Avent to the side 
of the river, and, by scooping out the sand at the 
side, close to the stream, with his hands, obtained 
at once a little well of water clear as crystal, which 
we most gladly substituted for the liquid we had 
been using. Meanwhile, an animated negotiation 
was being carried on with our benefictor as to the 
terms he wished to make for guiding us to the In- 
dian settlement — grunts and dumb show having 
to do the work of words. A few charges of pow- 
der and shot, at last, secured his services, and ere 
long, all being ready, we set out. Our route led 



274 An Indian Settlement. 

us directly inland, over the huge bairier of sand, 
with which the edge of Lake Huron, at that part, 
is guarded. From its top we looked, far and near, 
over the forest, wliich, close at hand, was very mis- 
erable and stunted, from the hinderance to any 
chance of drainage offered by the hill on which we 
stood. At a distance, however, it rose in all its 
unbroken and boundless grandeur — the very image 
of vastness and solitude. Descendino- the inner 
slope, we were soon making the best of our way 
across the brown water of successive swamps, with 
thin trees felled, one beyond another, as the only 
bridges. " Mind your feet there, George," cried 
my friend, as I was making my way, Blondin fash- 
ion, across one ; but he had more need to mind his 
own, for the next minute he was up to the knees in 
water of the color of coffee. An hour's walkino; 
brought us to the settlement, which consisted of a 
number of wigwams, raised among very small 
clearings, a log-house at one part marking the inter- 
preter's house — himself an Indian. A messenger 
liaving been sent round, we had before long a con- 
gregation in the chapel, which was a log-house, 
without seats, but with a desk at the one end, the 
other being appropriated, in great part, to the door, 
which was larire enouo;h to have served for the 
door of a barn. The squaws, in blankets, and 
blue cloth petticoats, and leggings, with large silver 
brooches on their bosoms, and bare heads, squatted 
down on the one side ; the men, in all varieties of 



Stolidity of the Indians. 21b 

costume, from a shirt upwards, took possession of 
the other ; the door standing open during the 
whole service, so tliat we, at the upper end, looked 
out into the forest, which was close at hand. The 
dogs, of course, formed part of the audience, some 
of them lying in the open space of the middle, and 
others at the door. One, which was more trouble- 
some than the others during the service, walked 
straight up the middle, and stood looking the cler- 
gyman in the face, to his no small annoyance, but 
was soon made to suffer for his want of respect. 
One of the men rose, silently as a shadow, and 
slipped up behind the four-legged hearer till he 
came close to his long tail; on this his hands 
closed in a moment, and then away went the poor 
brute, with a great swing, over his head, in a suc- 
cession of summersaults to the door, out of which, 
when it reached the ground, it rushed with pro- 
longed howls, and was seen no more while we were 
there. Not a countenance moved while this 
extraordinary ejectment was being effected, and the 
Indian himself resumed his place as solemnly as if 
he had been performing only an ordinary duty. 
It was very slow work to speak through the inter- 
preter, but the Indians sat it out with patient forti- 
tude, trying as it must have been to these wild 
creatures, so little prone to sedentary occupation, 
to listen to such a tedious process. A walk back, 
after all was over, brought us to our boat, which 
we had left on the beach, and in due time, after a 



276 Stolidity of the Indians. 

jjleasant sail, wc swept down the St. Clair once 
more, alad enouirli to get safely home accain. 

The perfect stolidity of the Indians under any 
amount of excitement is wonderful — unless, in- 
deed, under the influence of whiskey, or excited 
by the pui'suit of hunting — for, usually, you might 
as Tvell expect to move the features of an image as 
theirs. When railroads were introduced into Can- 
ada, they were a source of wonder to every one 
who had not seen them, the Indians alone excepted. 
They did not even spare a grunt, but marched into 
the carriages with the same comj)osure as if they 
had been familiar with them from their childhood. 
In any house they may enter, you can detect no 
sign of curiosity, still less of wonder, in any of their 
movements. The same cast-iron physiognomy is 
kept from the first to the last, whatever objects of 
interest you may have to show them. 

It is very hard for us to realize how difficult it is 
to get a new idea into such minds. A minister of 
my acquaintance, who lived among the Indians, 
told me what great trouble he had to teach them 
the use of a mill. He had got them to grow some 
wheat, and to cut it down, by doing a large part 
of the work himself; and when the time came to turn 
it into flour, he had to help to put it into sacks, to help 
to get it into a canoe, to go with them to the mill, 
to show them how to give it to the miller, get back 
the flour, get it put into the sacks again, and then 
into the canoe, and paddle home. Every thing 



Indian Superstition. 277 

had to be acted before tliey would do it them- 
selves. 

As miglit be expected, they are superstitious in 
proportion to their ignorance. One day, an Indian 
came to Henry in great distress, telHng him his 
gun was bewitched, and could not shoot straight, 
and asking him if he could make it right. Henry, 
of course, knew that the poor fellow Avas only 
laboring under a delusion, and at once told him he 
would make it all right. He, therefore, asked him 
to let him have it for the night, his wish being tq 
have an opportunity of cleaning it thoroughly. 
Having made it all right, on the Indian's return 
ne handed it to him, with all solemnity, telling him 
it was perfectly cured now. " Me shoot ten days 
— o-et nothing," said the unfortunate sportsman. 
" It's all right, now, though," replied Henry, assur- 
i]ig him, besides, that there were no more witches 
about it. Some time after, we were surprised by 
an Indian's coming to the house with the hind 
legs of a deer, telling us they Avere from the Indian 
for the " man cured gun." Henry was from home 
at the time, and as he had said nothing about his 
unbewitching the weapon, the gift was a mysteiy 
until his return. The gratitude shown for so small 
a favor was very touching, and impressed us all in 
the Indian's favor. He must have published 
Henry's wonderful powers, as well as rewarded 
them, for that same winter another Indian came 
to him in the woods, where he happened to be. 
21 



ti78 



/iii/i'rni Sni'iri'liliiiii. 



will) iIm' hiiiiM< wtory, llmf \m rifl** wn« I»«'wjf/'1M'/1, 
hikI woiiI'I not ti\\i)n\, Willi ii ^'oo'l (l<iil of wly 
liiiiiiKi, ll<ii(y 'IfhrmiiK-'l lo piny iIk; 'onjiiri'i 
lliio tiini', iiM In- liii'l DO 'liiincc ii\\iy\UM^ \\n: w<'Uj>« 

KM llOIIH'. Il<' IIhII-IoK' lojlj till- lll'liilM lo hit 

down, iMi'l lli< /I <li<'w II ('ii'rji- toiiii'l liiiii iiimI iIu) 
iiili < l< 'I rillf, iiikI )»I'« ii<I«'(| |i> Willi', iiiy.--l<rioiihly 
ioiiinl liiin, iiltciiMp; nil lli<' wliiln any iiiiioiuit, oC 
priMti rj.-^li In- r<Mil'l tliiiil'. of, itii'l iiiiikiii;.^ um\i\t: 
jdihtsr-n ill III! <lii<i ii.,i|.. All""! ifju'iiliiiji; l.liiii w 
niiiiilx I <<l hiM' ', li< I'.oi'. ill'' iilli- iiilo lii^ IiiiimIh, 
uii'l jiiomili i| \i, i'>.iiiiiiiii- il (iin Inlly, mill ncciii^ 
lliiil il, wiiM ill )<i'il<<l onlir, III- iiiinoiiiH'i-il ||ii; cciu- 
liiuriy lu Ik- I oiiijili'li', iiii'l liiiii'li'l il liai'k ii;.'iiill, 
willi llii' HhMiHiiiKi- lliiil lit! will iiol to \)f iil'iiiid oC 
il, tliiil. In; liiid only lo liiKit a ^'ood aim, iind tliiil, 
lIun'M win no wilclich iilioiil \\. now, I li*- Indiiui 
^innhd lliiiiiKn, iind iniidH oil'; iind ll<-iiry Im-iiiiI 
no iiioir ol'ii lill, Hoiiin nionllin tiller, wIm-ii Im' Iiii|i' 
|Miird lo !.•■ Ill il III ijdildirinp; villii^'/*, ilif «iil)ji< I, 
of liiti cliiirniH, lo liih ,-^iirpi i'-.c, riiiiH- ii|i lo Imn, mid 
lold llini '^ lie inilnl lin pri-iil doi-loi Indimi'M ^'iili 

hliool, rip;lil, ever hinrn lie I'llicd il." IJi-nry 
Hlltivven-d lliiit II liiid III I d< d no iiiic, mid lliiil Iim 
Iind only done wluil lie did liecmi.in llie Indiiiii 

would liol liiive, Idlieveil liit^ |i(|i' Wlirt I'i^lll, W llM 
liiid mil doiH ..i.iiH lliiiiM. VVIiiil llii' ell'i'i'l, wiiH on 
llie, Indimrh nolion.i I Know nol, liiiL we ccrliiinly 
lirmd no more ul' lnvvililiid iKIim 



'I'lii 1 1 II III mill ij liiiil. 



'279 



on A I' I I, l( XVII 



7h« liMiiKiiJM//, l»ii(|, bi./iy «r u |)i:(. <Jttiiiiilit u f^oDil coiiiifry fol 
I i)«i mill. - A liimli H((/ry «(' iiiinrniluiin. Hliiliilr liilior. 'J'or- 
Ulhi'M, Till! liny muniiH. <Mir wuKKii ilrlviiiK. /Iiniy uiiil ( 
ail) iMiurly iIiowihkI. —Ilmiry I'uIIh ill,— limUwooiU di»irj/r«. 

IT \V!1K ill May oC llic ,--;<(<)iiil year I lii^l, iii*licc(l 
* IIk- limiiiiiiii;,' liiid. 'Iln-n' jin- <linii;r<!lll hjMiciitii 
ill ''aiiaila iii hiinmicj', Iml all mcciii i(jiially licaiili- 
lul. WIkii I lirsl. Haw oii<', it wa-s jii-.e a liviii" 
J^<-Iii, dailiiiw^ iiiilii T aii'l lliilJK T in llic i)|,im loiiiid 
•Jm5 lioUNit, n4!V<tr vohUw^ ImiI lor a l<vv iikhikiMh, 
wliil<! il. ))oisc<| ilHf'lC on ilM lovely wiii^«, wliidi 
«''<*iuc(| iiiiitioiili'HM Irniii lli«! vnry ni|»i<lily of llicii* 
vilualJoii. No liinl ||i<M ^>o lai-tl, hiiiall ||i<.iim|| i(, |„.^ 
HO llial, il, in i)n|;oH^lil/l<! lo rollow il, a.s il, darlfs Iroiii 
«)iof, lo Kpol,. Lal,<T ill llic Hi'ason,a Ihiik-Ii of flow- 
<-r?H, al, an o|H'n winilow, wai jin^lly siir<! lo liiin<^ 
OIK! (iiiivi'iiiiM; over IIkiii, )n(')iaralory l,o IJinihlin^ 
ilH lonn iln'n liill into tin: (11)1^, lo drink IIh- hwccl.i 
llial, Lay al lint jiolloin. Soiii'-liiiH'-i in llic (!V<MI- 
iii^^M, liny nii^^lil, ln! hc«!Ii, liii' half an lioiir al, ii 
liiiu;, darlinj.'; al, llin liulc /-loiidH oC Wh-n wliirli 
diilKHj in llic air, iind<r ijif |,)aii<li«;< oC llic Iiccm, 
or ill llic ojMii, • rciiiin^^ 1,0 a l.wi;^ lo icil, wlicii 



280 Thr Jlammuifj-Urd. 

tlird. Tlioy seem, for a ^reat part of tlicir tlmCf 
to feed oil .such iiiseets, the stomach of several 
humming-birds, 1 liave licard, havinj^ been Ibuud 
lull ol' lliciu ulicii ()|)cucd. 'J'lici'c is a charmiii;^ 
accMiiut iu a J'hiladcljiliiu m;i;;:i/i)u; o[' one whicli 
nhouffl oiuatcr lluuiliiirily with man tliau has ever 
been known jroui any other of its species.* One 
»jf the youui:; hidies of a family was sittinjr at an 
oj)eii window, when a liununlu;j;-bird Hew in, very 
feebly, and dropped on the lloor, apj)arently 
exhausted. To pick it up was the work of a 
•noment ; and the thou^^lit that it mi^rht be tired 
an<l hungry, aft<.'r a Ion;:; Hi;i;ht, forthwith set its 
i'ricud to \ry whether she could tempt it to eat 
any thin;;'. Mixin;; some ci'eam and su^ar, and 
j)ourin;i; a little of it int(j the cu|) of a bell-shaped 
flower, the beautiful creature, to he)' (^reat deh<^ht, 
at on(;e be^^an to sij), and eathei-in;^ strengtli as lie 
did so, by and by How oif thr<ju;i;li the \vind<nv 
once more. Next day, and every day thencefortli, 
tlnou^^h tlio summer, the little thinf^ came back 
about the same time, for another repast, fluttering 
a^fainst the window, if it happened to be shut; and 
whenever Ik; iiad not o;ot enough, flying backwards 
and forwards close at hand, in great restlessness till 
a fresh supply had been maimfactured. It did not 
matter who was in tlie room, the sight of the 
tiower held out ])rouglit liim in, when \w. was wait- 

♦ (Quoted in Gossc's "Canadian Nutmiilist." 



Canada (juudjur the Vuur. 281 

ing ior liis meal ; iiidci-d, liis iiaturiil timidity 
sueined to liavo been ciitiivly laid aside, i^atc; in 
the season, a day jKissed witlmut his visit, and they 
found that, in :dl |ii-ohahihty, he had llown oil' to 
the south i'or the winter. Whether he came haek 
a^ain the next s[»rin;^ has not been reconh'd. 

SoiMf of th(! settlers in the bush, back Irom thu 
I'iver, were striking; examph'S of the benefits a jx^or 
man may <^et from coming to such a c<)nntry as (Jan- 
ada. 1 used often to }^o back on various eiTands, 
and was always deh^hted with the r(»u;j;h jthMity of 
larmeis who, not many years a;ro, had been iabor- 
<!fs at home, \\illi only a few shillin^is a week for 
wages. Now, by steady hibor an«l sobriety, niany 
amongst them were proprietors of a hundred a<'i'es 
of excellent land, and sat down at cicli meal to a 
table which cvfii wcll-t<»-(|<» people in England 
are not in the habit of enjoyin;^. Hut there were 
SOUK! cases of fiiibire, whi<'b no less strongly 
bioiiglil the pe<iili;ir ( iretiinstances of the countiy 
before me. Ti'U niili's away from us, ami lyiug 
back from the river, a j)ers(»n who had Ikumi a 
baker in London, but bad di-termined to tinn 
fiirmer, had setthnl scjine years before. J le built a 
log-house, and cleari'd a pattdi, but it was slow 
work, as he had to bring on his back all the iiour 
and potatoes, or what his household needed, the 
whoIc! way from the river, throngh tlu; forest, over 
swamps, and every other difHculty that lay in his 
road. After a tin\" lie fell ill of fever and ague — 



282 A Bush Story of Misfortune. 

the great curse of new or low-lying districts in 
Canada and the States. For eight months he 
could do no work, and meanwhile his family were 
(h-iven to the greatest straits to keep themselves 
alive. At last, he was able to get about once 
more. Every thing was behind with him, but he 
was still unbroken in spirit. But now came a new 
trial : a great tree, which had been left standing 
near his house, fell down across it, breaking in the 
roof, though foitunately without killing any one. 
The axe and })atience offered the means of escaji- 
ing from this misfortune also; and, before long, 
the tree was removed, and the shattered dwelling 
restored. For awhile all went on Ave-ll enough 
after he had thus once more got on his feet. But 
liis troubles were not yet at an end. Coming 
home one night Avith a heavy load, on his weary 
ten miles' road from the front, in crossing a s- amp 
on a round log, his foot slipped, and a sharp -take 
ran through his boot deep into the flesh, im^ aling 
him, as it were, for a time. How he got h./;ne I 
know iuit, but of course he left his load b'-hind 
him, and had to crawl to his house as best he 
could. This last calamity fairly crushed his liopes 
of success ; and, on recovering, he abandor.ed his 
land, moved with his family to a town eigh'y nviles 
off", and took service at his old trade, in vvKch, 
after a time, he was able to recommence lusiaess 
oi his own account. 

When the roads got pretty dry in tlie ummci 



Statute Labor. 283 

time, we were all summoned by the " patlimae:tcr '' 
of our neighborhood — a dignitary who is elected 
annually to superintend the repairs of the different 
roads — to do our statute labor. As money to jiay 
a substitute was out of the question, we had, of 
course, ourselves to shoulder shovels, and turn out 
for the six days' work required of us. My three 
elder brothers, and a number of neighbors, were on 
the ground on the day appointed, but they were an 
hour or two later than they would have reqiiired 
any laborers they might have hired to have been, 
and they forthwith commenced their task. It was 
amusing to see how they managed to get through 
the time, what with smoking, discussing what was 
to be done, stopping to chat, sitting down to rest, 
and all the manoeuvres of unwilling workers. A 
tree had to be cut up at one part and hauled together 
for burning off; a ditch dug from nowhere to no- 
where, at some other point ; a bridge to be rej)aired, 
at a third, by throwing a log or two across it, in the 
places from which broken ones had been drawn out ; 
a mud hole filled up, at a fourth ; and the cordui'oy 
road, over a swamp, made more passable, at a fiftli, 
by throwing a large quantity of branches on it, 
and covering them deeply with earth, so as to get a 
smooth surface. " I guess I've done more for the 
Queen, nor she's done for me," said John Courtenay, 
as he sat down for the tenth time. " I'll take it 
easy now, the boss is up the road," the " boss " 
being the pathmaster, who had gone off to anotiiei 



284 Tortoises. 

gang at some distance. You may be snre ouf 
engineering was very poorly clone, bat it was all 
we had to look to to keep the roads passable at all 
in the wet weather. The vacant lots, every here 
and there, were the greatest hinderance to any im- 
provements worthy the name, nobody caring to re- 
pair the road through an absentee's land, though 
all suffered from its being neglected. 

There were a numl)er of tortoises in the ponds, 
in the woods, and by the roadside, and they used to 
give us a good deal of amusement. They were of 
all sizes, but generally not very large, and were 
really beautiful in the markings of their shells, 
when you had them close at hand. But to get 
near enough for this was the difHculty. They 
used to come out of the water, in the middle of the 
day, to sun themselves, or to sleep, on the dry logs 
which lay over it, and the great point was to try to 
keep them from plumping off in an instant, rather 
than making to the land. It was all but hopeless 
to try it, but we would not give it up. Sometimes 
we came upon them, away from the water a little, 
and then we had it all our own way with them. 
They move very awkwardly on the ground, and 
seem too stupid to do even as much as they might, 
but they must not be handled incautiously, for they 
give terrible snaps with their horny mouths, which 
are like the sides of a smith's vice for hardness and 
strength of hold. A poor Scotchman who came 
out one summer, found this out to his cost. He 



Tortoises. 285 

had been coming down tlie road, and saw a large 
tortoise, or " mud-tnrtle," as the Canadians call 
them, apparently sound asleep at the edge of the 
creek. Of course, he thought he had come on a 
treasure, and determined to catch it if possible. 
Stealing, therefore, breathlessly, up to the spot, he 
made a grab at it before it suspected danger, and 
in a minute had it swinging over his shoulder by its 
foreleg. The leg was short, and the round shield 
that covered the creature was therefore close up to 
his head. He thought he would take it home, and 
show the good folks this wonder of the woods ; 
perhaps he thought of taming it, or of making combs 
for his wife out of its back shell. At any rate, on 
he jogged quite proud of his acquisition. He would 
soon get over the five miles more he had to walk, 
and then what excitement there would be at the 
sight of such a creature. But, by this time, the 
turtle had recovered presence of mind enough to 
look round him, and accordingly poked his head 
out, and in doing so came invitingly close to his 
captor's car, on which his two jaws closed in a 
moment. If ever a prisoner had his revenge he 
had it. The Scotchman might have pulled his ear 
off, in trying to get free, but nothing short of that 
seemed of any use. He could not let go the leg, 
for that would leave the whole weioht of the turtle 
hanging from his ear, and he could not keep his 
arms up without getting cramps in them. But he 
had to try. In misery, with his Avretched ear bent 



286 Tortoises. 

down dose to the shell, and his hands immovably 
raised to the same shoulder the whole way, he had 
to plod on, the whole distance, to his house, where 
his Mpitearance created no small alarm as he came 
near. Notiiing could even then be done to loosen 
the creature's hold; it was like a vice, — until at 
last tliey managed to relieve him, by getting the 
head far enough out to cut it off, after which the 
jaws were at last parted, and the sufferer allowed 
to tell his luckless adventure. 

One of our neiirhbors used to shock our notions of 
propriety by eating the " turtles" he caught. 
'* There are fish, there are flesh, and there are 
fowl on a turtle," he used to say in his bad English, 
in describing their charms, but the worthy Manks- 
man got no one to join him in his appreciatiyn of 
them. The Indians have a kind of religious ven- 
eiation for them, and would not, on any account, 
do them any harm. I knew one who acted as in- 
terpreter at a missionary station, who used to say 
that the hardest trial he had had, after he be- 
came a Christian, was one day in summer, when, 
having pounced upon a tortoise, he took it on his 
back to carry it home, and was overtaken by a 
dreaflful storm of thunder and lightning. lie said 
that he could hardly get over the thought, that it 
was because he had offended the sacred creature, 
and this notion fairly made him perspire with terror ; 
but he had the courage to resist his alaiTn, and 
after the sky had cleared, he lifted it once more on 



The Ilau Stison. 287 

his sliouldei', aiul went lioino resi)l\cMl never to 
yield to fear of such a kind aoain. 

The l)ay in the nei<j;liborliood was niowu about 
the end of June, and as our' own su])ply was, as 
yet, far sliort of our requirements, we had to buy a 
({uantity. To get it cheaj)er, wo un(k'rtook to send 
our wagon to the field for it, and bring it home 
ourselves. Henry and I were detailed for this 
service, and started one morning with the oxen and 
the wagon, a frame of light poles having been laid 
on the ordinary box to enable us to pile up a suffi- 
cient load. I had to get inside, while Henry forked 
np the hay from the cocks on the ground, my part 
being to spread it about evenly. We got on famous- 
ly till the load Avas well up in the frame, the oxen 
moving on from one cock to another, through the 
stumps, at Henry's commands, but Avithout any 
special guidance. All at once, while they were 
going at the rate of about two miles an hour, the 
wheels on one side gradually rose, and before I 
could help myself, over went the whole frame, hay 
and all, on the top of Henry, who was walking at 
the side. The oxen had pulled the load over a 
hillock at the foot of a stump. I was sent clear of 
the avalanche, but Henry was thrown on his back, 
luckily with his head and shoulders free, but the 
rest of his body embedded in the mass. Neither of 
us w-as hurt, however, and we laughed heartily 
enougti, after we had recovered our self-possession, 
the first act being to stop the oxen, who were 



288 H>inry and I nearly Browned. 

inarching off with the four wheels, as solemnly aa 
ever, and had no idea of coming to a halt without 
orders. Of coui-se we had to clear the frame, get 
it set up again on the wagon, and fork up all the 
hay once more, but we took care of the oxen the 
second time, and met no more accidents. 

Henry and I were very nearly drowned, shortly 
after this, in that great lumbering canoe of ours, by 
a very ridiculous act on our own parts, and an 
unforeseen roughening of the water. Some bricks 
were needed to rebuild the cliinniey, and they 
could not be had nearer than the opj^osite side of 
the river. Henry and I, therefore, set off in the 
forenoon to get them, and crossed easily enough. 
We went straight over, intending to paddle down 
the shore till we reached the place where the 
bricks were to be had, about two miles below. 
Having nothing to hurry us, and the day being 
uncommonly bright and beautiful, we made no 
attempt to be quick, but drew the canoe to the 
land, and salHed up the bank to get some ears of 
Indian corn Avhich were growing close by, and 
offered great attractions to our hungry stomachs. 
At last, after loitering by the way for an hour or 
two, we reached our destination, bought the bricks, 
and paddled our canoe some distance up a stream 
to get near them, that Ave might the more easily get 
them on board ; but ignorance is a bad teacher, 
even in so simple a matter as loading a canoe with 
bricks. We had no thought but how to pack 



Henry and I nearly Drowned. l!89 

them all in at once, so that we should not havo to 
come over again, and kept stowing tlicm in all the 
way along tlie canoe, except at each end, where 
we reserved a small space for ourselves. When 
the whole had been shipped, w-e took our places — 
Henry at the bows, on his knees ; I at the stern, 
on a seat made of a bit of tlie lid of a flour-barrel 
— each of us with his paddle. It was dcliglitful to 
steer down the glassy creek, and wheii we turned 
into the river, and skirted up close to the banks, it 
seemed as if we were to get back as easily as we 
came, though Henry just then bade me look over 
the side, telling me that the canoe was only the 
length of a forefinger out of the water, and, sin*e 
enougli, I found it was so ; but we never thought 
it boded any danger. In smooth water one is not 
apt to think of the rough that may follow. We 
got along charmingly for a time, under the lee of 
the land, which made a bend out, some distance 
above our house, on the American side ; we deter- 
mined to allow a good deal for the current, and go 
to this point, before we turned to cross. Unfortu- 
nately for us, in our ignorance of the proper man- 
agement of a canoe under difficulties, a great 
steamer, passing on to Chicago, swept up the 
sti'eam, close to us, just as we were about to strike 
out for home, and the swell it raised made the 
water run along the edge of the canoe, as if it were 
looking over and wanted to get in. It lurched and 
twisted, got its head wrong, and all but filled, even 

25 



r.iO 



III III II "ml I III III I If hi iiii'rii'd. 



will) tliit* hll^^Jit, uy\\:i\\in\. We li;i'l yiiti 'tWfV tlj'id 
1,r«»iiM<'. wlicri w<' ('(ini'l, lo m\v ;il;i»ifi, «»n ^'<'ttiri|^ 
out, IW>in IIm- ;',I)< ll<f <»(' lli<' hiii'l, lli.if lli«- winrl wjm 
\^yiUu^^ u|», Irci'.lily fiiouj'li lo tw.Ai- fli'' ini'l xU'f'.'int 
<)uil<- ;'»(i;'li. I ( '.'.'<■ Ii.i'l I'.o'fvvii iIm- < •- l<til of om 
(I;im;"'( wc vvoiiM li;iv'r linii<'l lui'l'. ;iii'l iifilo!i'l<''l 
mnw. of our ciuj.'o, l»iil no M\r\\ notion occiin*-'! to 
MA, VV<- iImi'Ioi'' <I<Ic( iiiiim'I lo m;il '• iIm- IhcI oI 
onr W!iy ii'ioiv^; Kiil if \\:v\ t-n-v-v '\*'\fV\\\\t\i-A tliiin 
lion*'. 'Mm*. win<l .'ind iIm- hlioif, <|io|,|(inf' wiivcn 
UHlit'\\\vr wry «0'»ii tool-. IIm- ni:iii;i;M|ii.Jil of onr 
(r.'iil li:iil< out o( our ImmhI'^, twiHlin^"; tlic <;ino«! 
roun'l jwi'l roiHi'l, in i-.pil*' of nil onr fllorl'i. I'ivcry 
liltN) wliilf we would [lyl into lli<- IroiiMJi ol IIm! 
Uln'iirn, nnd tlm W(it<fr vvoiiM run ;ilon;^ from iIm- 
bow to ill*' mIimii, HJiinin^ ov<r llut (Iw \ur\\(-», on 
wlilcli <|c|»i'n(lf(l our liopc .'lu'l li(^ ; llnii, Honm 
w«»uM lin<l ilH wity in. 'IIm- IwicKH yui (juil.t; wcl.. 
'J'lu', cniiily K)((M-c in wlii'li I i^iit wiiK fillrrl lo my 
HnU«'fi willi w(il<-r, iind II<nry mIiouI<<I iIimI il wjih 
\\\i' h(im<* III, liis end, '' I'liiMlf li.nil, (irorcf, for 
y<iMr lif'' |i;i'l<ll<-, |»ii(|r||<', iind wn ni.'iy ^ct, over ; " 
uml |i;i'lilli- liolli ol \v\ (li'l, III llin viiry toji of our 
nlvcM^lli. VVc muil liiivc Ixi'ii miilun^'; wuyMwiflly, 
liut, owiuj^ to llic noittc of llif wind, imd iIm- confii- 
itioti of mind wf wfi"- in, for ncitlicr of in roidd 
Mwini «i MiroKc, vvi' <'ould iml (ind oiil ulnlln'r w»! 
ni;idi' liny |iio"ii' , ;iiid, lo :idd lo oiir lnwildrr- 
in<-nl, round wml. llni li<iid of tin- cunoc tin* wront; 
Wity, oner iind ii;.;iiin, in h|)itc, of iih. ^SSImll I 



llnn;ij,iU.i III. 



'JOl 



throw oiil lli<' liii'l,', lliiiiy'''" I rii.il. '< Vcm, 
if yiMi run ;" liiit i| wnf< im-xI to iiii|)(»',.il)lc to do il. 
I dill, iiid'i d, m;iniij.'f to town two or llii'cf- ovir, Imt 
I wiis lii'liM tii:Mi, ,'Hid iriy p;iviir^ up my |>;iddlc li It 
IK ln'l|»li;«Mly wliiiliii;.'; loiiiid. II<'iiiy li;id lii', \t:\t\ 
\i> tli(! hrickH, iirid of rrmrni! cixild <lo iiotliiri;.<;. 
!!<•, tlicri-roi'c, |'.i|il |i;ii|dliii^'; nn li;iid ;n cvci'. 
Sfly,iiij.<; my |)ii(|i||c, I joiind mv <(loi t lo lii , ;iiid, 
n('t<T II, lim<-, loiind, lo my ^Mcaf, joy, lli;il llif vv;il<'r 
W!is cliiiii^/iii;/ color — ;i HiM'f Hijrii lliiit. w<! wcnj 
iiiui li iii'Mr'T iiiiid lii.'in u<- li:id ii'i'ii :i lillli- wliiln 
l«lof. A (i'w miiiiit<*tt morf, and vvi- miiw tint liolr- 
loin, :ind kiM-w w<i vivn' Mal'r ; liiil, not, «r» tjid 
IiihI. ,. I li<- <;iiiof ;inl In loii- ifacliili;' tin- Laid'., 
imiiH'rmi;.'; n. lo lli<- middlf, and tlioii;.di wc dra }/;.';< -d 
il, to llic land, llic hri'-kht wi-rc in mo liad a Mlat<^ 
lliat, lioin out n<;d<''liii<'; lo lal.f f,j»c(i;d paiiiM wiUi 
ilifiii, a /^rcat many mouldered into red <-arlli. 

'riiin wan my only danj'fioiiH adv«'nliirf willi our 
1,'icj.n' follln of a r;iii()c, hnl many a, liaid |iiill I 
lijivi; liad with il. J'oor I lenry p!;ji\ <•, ni<' on<- loii;di 
day'n work, mii'-h a{j;aiiiMl, hin will, ll<; had Icrn 
workiiijj; in lli<- (i'M, and, \n-'\u\! very warm, had 
drunk a lai;"-, r|ij;inlity of wall r, whi'li hioii'dil, on 
very (/ainlnl eram|»H of the ivtomaeh. I lierc wern 
none hilt, onr two f.elveit ;ind ihi; j.dil:( ai home, and 
the neare.t. phirr lo proenic mcdieal advie<! wuH ut 
the villa^'e win;!'; J had }/ot, the hriekn, aeroMK tJn) 
river, 'i here watt no lime, to he |o(vt. ; Henry wiiii 
ala.rmifi"Iy ill, !,o away I went with iheianoe, j^ad* 



292 American Titles. 

tiling as hard as I could, and got to my destination 
pretty quickly. But to get tlic " doctor " was the 
ditficulty. 1 found "Major" Thompson, whom t 
knew by sight, standing in his shirt-sleeves at the 
door of the cotfee-house he kept, and I asked him 
if he could tell me where I should find the medical 
man. " Good morning, doctor," said the " Ma- 
jor," in answer — I was no more a doctor than he 
a major, but the Americans are fond of assunnng 
and bestowing titles — " I don't know, p'raps lie's 
to home — jist ask Gin'ral Northrop, yonder, if 
he's seen him come out this morning ? " The gen- 
tleman to whom I was thus directed proved to be 
the leader of the choir in the village chaj^'l, and 
followed some trade, but what, I don't know. He 
Avas dressed in a great broad straw hat, blue shirt, 
linen trowsers, and boots, and was very busy load- 
ing a cart with furniture at a door up the street. 
He Avas very courteous when I got up to him. 
*' I guess," said he, "you'll be all right ; I calculate 
he's not about yet ; just go down the street, and 
turn round that there fence corner, and you'll easy 
find his place." Thither I went, and was fortu- 
nate enough to find the old man, who, in spite of a 
dissipated and miserable look, seemed to know his 
profession. I could only suppose that he must have 
been driven to such a place from pure necessity. 
He gave me some stuff from a dispensary", as 
strange and uncouth as that of the a])othecary in 
** Romeo and Juliet : " -- 



Backwood Doctors. 293 

" About his shelves 
A hej^garly account of empty boxes, 
Green enrtlien pots, bhidders and musty seeds, 
Remnants of packthread . . . 
Were tliinly scattered." 

Into this sanctum I was taken by tlie back-door, 
and found it, in reality, more a lumber-room tlian 
a shop, for tlie window made no sort of display, 
and, everywhere, dirt reigned in undisturbed pos- 
session. Havinp; got the medicine, I quickly 
regained the canoe, and paddled home as rapidly 
as possible. But, instead of getting better, poor 
Henry seemed rather to get worse, so that I had 
to set off a second time, with a long account of the 
symptoms, on paper, to hand to the doctor. This 
time, thank God, he hit on the right prescription, 
and I had the unspeakable pleasure of seeing the 
poor sufferer greatly relieved by an infusion we got 
made for him when I returned. I verily believe 
that if he had had no one to go over the river for 
him he must have died. 

" The want of sufficient medical help, and too 
often the inferior quality of what you can get, is 
one of the greatest evils of living in the backwoods. 
Henry all but died a year or two after this, from 
the treatment he had to undergo at the hands of a 
self-styled doctor, who came to the neighborhood 
for a time, and left it when his incompetency was 
found out. The illness was a very serious one — 
brain fever — and the treatment resorted to was 

25 * 



294 Baekwood Doctors. 

bleeding and depletion, till life nearly ebbed away 
from sheer exhaustion. The poor fellow was made 
to take medicine enough almost to kill a stronrj 
man ; and was so evidently sinking, that the other 
inmates of the house determined to send over for 
old Dr. Chamberlain, who had before saved him, 
when I went to him. " Killed with too much 
medicine," was all he raid, when he had seen the 
wasted form of the patient, and heard the stoiy ; 
" if he should get through it, it will be in spite of 
what has been done, not by its means." He did 
get through, but it '^vas a long, weary struggle. I 
have known a person come twenty miles in search 
of a medical man for his wife, and when he reached 
his house, be bitterly disappointed to find the doc- 
tor off ten miles in an opposite direction. ]\Ir, 
Spring, up the river, had good cause to remember 
his being at the mercy of an uneducated practi- 
tioner. He was going in the dark, one winter 
night, to a friend's house, about two miles off, 
when suddenly slipping on a j)iece of ice, he fell 
violently on his knee. Trying to rise, he found he 
had injured the cap, so that he could not walk. 
He had, therefore, to crawl back home again, in the 
keen cold of a Canadian night, along the road, 
over the field, and down the steep bank, all cov- 
ered thickly with snow. The " doctor," who lived 
five miles off, was, of course, sent for next morning 
as early as possible. But it would, perhaps, have 
been better if he had never been sent for at all, for 



Baekwood Doctors. 295 

he bandaged the leg so tightly as almost to bring 
on mortification ; and this he did, too, without 
attempting to bring the broken parts together. 
The result was a hopelessly stiff leg, after the suf- 
lerer had endured many weeks of pain. 

We had occasional visits of gentlemen, who join 
ed tiie medical profession with other pursuits. 
Tiiey would cure a fever, or act as dentists, and 
announced their arrival by calls from house to house. 
A friend of mine, who had unfortunately lost a 
front tooth, thought he had better take advantage 
of such an opportunity, especially as he was going 
in a short time up Lake Huron to a public dinner. 
" But," said he, when relating the cii'cumstance, 
" the fellow was a humbug ; he put in a hickory 
peg to hold the new tooth, and when I was in 
the middle of my dinner it turned straight out, 
and stuck before me, like a tusk, till I got it tugged 
out." 

There was a medical man of a very different 
stamp who came among us some years after this, 
when I had left the river, and of whom I have 
heard some curious stories. Dr. White — let that 
be his name — had been in large practice in Ireland, 
but had unfortunately fallen into dissipated habits, 
Avhich compelled him to emigrate. To raise the 
means of reaching Canada, his wife had sold an 
annuity she enjoyed on her own life, after his engag- 
ing that he would give up his intemperate habits. 
He first settled in one of the towns, but afterwards 



296 Backwood Doctors. 

came to our part, and bought a farm, intending to 
lielp his income by working it. His old habit, 
liowever, to the regret of all, broke out again, and 
destroyed his prospects, in spite of liis being looked 
up to, throughout the district, as the best " doctor " 
in it. People often came from a distance to consult 
him, and were doomed to find him helpless ; and 
this, of course, speedily ruined his practice. In- 
stances of his skill, however, still linger in the minds 
of many in the settlement, accompanied with great 
regret, that a man at once so clever and comely 
Khould have been so o;reat an enemv to himself, 
lie had a rouirh humor sometimes, when he Avas a 
little under the mfluence of drink, which was very 
diveiting. Hvnry was one night at his house in 
the winter, when a rap came to the door. The 
others being busy, Henry rose to open it, and found 
two men, who had come thi'ough the frightful cold 
to get the doctor's assistance. The one, it appeared, 
could not speak, from some abscess or boil in his 
throat, which he had come to get lanced or other- 
wise treated. On being taken into the hall, which 
had a sto^^e in it, and was comfortable enough, the 
doctor made his appearance, and walked up to the 
sufferer with a candle in his hand. " What's the 
matter with you?" The patient sim])ly opened 
his mouth wide, and pointed into it with his fingers. 
*' Let me see," said White. " Open your mouth, 
sir" — taking the candle out of the candlestick, 
and holding it close to the poor fellow's face. The 



Backwond Doctors. 297 

moutli was, of course, instantly opened as widely 
as j)ossil)le, and the blazing candle was as instantly 
sent dasli into it, as fixr as it would go, raising a 
yell from the patient that might have l)een heard 
over the next farm, which was followed by a rusli 
outside the door to clear his mouth, as he seemed 
half choked. "Bring a light here," cried White, 
coming to the door quite coolly. " How do you 
feel, sir ? " The blow with the soft candle, the 
fright, and the yell, all together, had wrought a 
miracle on tlie poor fellow. His trouble was clean 
gone. " I'm better, sir — what's to pay ? " '* Noth- 
ing at all," re})lied White; "good night to you," 
and tlie scene was over. Henry laughed, as he 
well might, at such an incident ; and afcer awhile 
ventured to ask the doctor if there were no instru- 
ments that would have done ? " Certainly theie 
are, but do you think I'd dirty my instruments on 
a fellow like that ? the candle would do well 
enouo;h-" Poor White died some time after, throuo-h 
intemperance. His widow and family were enabled 
to get back to Ireland by the sale of all the effects 
he had ; and on their arrival, his friends took charge 
of the children, and the widow went out as a gover- 
ness to India. 



298 Riding. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

American men and women. — Fireflies. — Profusion of insect life. — 
Grasshoppers. — Frederick and David leave Canada. — Soap- 
ranking. — Home-made candles. — Recipe for washing quickly. 
— Writing letters. — The parson for driver. 

AS the delicious nights of summer di'ew on ao;nin, 
it was a pleasure of which we never wearied 
to ride over to some neighhor's to spend an hour or 
two. The visit itself was always delightful, for we 
could not have wished better society, but the un- 
speakable loveliness of the road was no less so. 
We very soon got a couple of horses, every one else 
havino; them, for no one in Canada ever thinks of 
waiting if he can help it. I have often wondered 
at this, for the same persons who would not stir a 
step, if possible, in Canada, without a horse, or some 
conveyance, would have been fond of walking if 
they had remained in Britain. It cannot be because 
they have horses in the one country and had none 
in t]-.e other, for, in towns, there is no such liking 
for walking, though there are few who either own 
or ' an borrow a horse or vehicle, and those in the 
country who have neither will send in all directions 
to ask the loan of a nei<ihbor's horse rather than 



American 3fen and Women. 299 

walk a few miles. Probably the great lieat of sum- 
mer renders tlie exertion of walking irksome to most 
peoj)]e ; and, on the other hand, in Avinter, the 
cold and the snow are suc-h hinderances as to throw 
them out of the habit of it. There seems no doubt 
besides, that the effects of the climate on Europeans 
is to enfeeble them gradually, though they may not 
exhibit any symptoms of rapid decay, or suffer from 
any acute disease. The red cheeks of the inhabit- 
ants of Britain are very soon lost in Canada, and 
you very seldom see the stout, hearty people so 
common in England. 

But I am forgetting my rides on the old mare, 
Kate, in tlie summer evenings. I was walking her 
slowly u]) the road one night, Avhen I was struck by 
innumerable flashes of light among the trees in the 
forest at my side. I tried every theory I could 
think of to account for it, some of them ridiculous 
enough, but it was not till I came home that I hit 
on the right one, which I might have been sure of 
at first. The phenomenon in question was nothing 
but an immense number of fireflies sporting amono- 
the branches, and their motion made them seem as 
if every leaf were a Leyden jar giving off a succes- 
sion of electric sparks. I had often seen them be- 
fore, but never in such amazing swarms. They 
must have been holding some grand carnival, some 
firefly's ball, with endless dancing and wonderful 
illumination. The insects that make this brilliant 
display are a kind of beetle, about three-quarters of 



300 Fireflies. 

an inch in lenfjth. They ffive out their lio-hl from 
different parts of tlioir Lodios, but cliiefly from the 
lower lialf, and are often cauglit and kept for a 
time in bottles as a curiosity. In other countries 
they are said to have been put to various uses, but 
I never heard of their being so emj)loyed in Canada. 
The Caribs of St. Domingo, a race of Indians whose 
memory is now passing away, were formerly 
accustomed to use them as living lamps in their 
evening household occupations, just as we use can- 
dles. In travelling at night they fastened them to 
their feet, and in fishing or Imnting in the dark 
they made them serve as lights to guide them. 
Moreover, as the fireflies destroy ants, they gave 
them the freest entry to their wigwams to help to 
rid them of these pests. Southey, in his poem of 
'• Madoc," tells us, that it was by the light of this 
insect Coatel rescued the British hero from the 
hands of the Mexican priests : 

" She beckoned and descended, and drew out 
From underneath her vest a cajje, or net 
It rather might he called, so fine the twigs 
That knit it — where, confined, two fireflies gave 
Their lustre. By that light did Madoc first 
Behold the features of his lovely guide." 

I am afraid he would have remained ignorant of 
her loveliness, if the discovery had depended on the 
light of Canadian fireflies, which are very beautifiil, 
indeed, in their momentary brightness, but are far 



Profiisioii of Insect Life. 301 

too dim for any thing more. I have often been 
reminded, as I have seen one, here and there, kind- 
ling liis little spark for an instant, and sailing in 
light, for a brief glimpse, across the night, of the 
fine figure in whieh Coleridge compares the illumi- 
nation afforded by i)hilos()phy, in the ages before 
Christ, to the radiance with which "the lanthorn- 
fly of the tro})ics " lights up, for a moment, the 
natural darkness. It is equally beautiful and apt. 

It is wonderful to see what a profusicm of insect 
life sometimes shows itself in the summer-time in 
Canada. I was once sailino; down the Niagara 
Kiver to Chippewa, which is the last port above 
the Falls, in the month of September, when, all at 
once, the steamer entered a dense snowy cloud of 
M'hite gnats, so blinding, from the countless num- 
bers, that all on deck had either to get below, or 
turn their backs, or stand ])ehind some protection. 
You could see the land through them only as you 
Avould have seen it through a snow-storm, and this 
continued till we reached our destination — a dis- 
tance of several miles. How many millions of mil- 
lions of these frail creatures must there have been ? 
There is another fly that I have also seen in vast 
numbers — the May-fly, Avhich, however, makes its 
appearance not in May generally, but in June. 
But it is so disagreeable-looking, that my only 
desire on beholding it has been to get out of its 
way. Butterflies are sometimes met with in simi- 
lar clouds. I have seen large numbers of them in 

26 



302 Profusion of Insect Life. 

the air, or resting on the earth ; but Sir James 
Emerson Tennent tells us, that in Ceylon, they 
sometimes fly past in flocks apparently miles in 
breadth, and in an unbroken stream, fur hours and 
even days together.* What a vast amount of life 
there must be over the world, at any one time, 
when such an amazing fulness of it is met at even 
a single point ! Canada has, indeed, too nnieh 
cause to feel this, as regards the insect tribes, for, 
of late years, it has been visited by such a suc- 
cession of j)ests as often to injure its harvests to a 
great extent. The " army-worm," as it is called, 
the weevil, the wireworm, the midge, and the 
locust, or, as the Canadians call it, the grasshopper, 
have each invaded districts, which, on their aj)])ear- 
ance, were rich with the promise of abundant crops, 
but were left waste and ruined when they had 
passed over it. The grasshopper is the most easily 
noticed of these plagues, as its size and its curious 
noise in flying, and the way it strikes against your 
clothes, and instantly fastens on them, are sure to 
dj'aw attention. They seem to be a new arrival in 
Canada, having apjiarently travelled thither gradu- 
ally from the vast prairies of the Far West. At 
the Red River they are met with in legions that 
enable one to realize what a curse the locusts must 
have been to the Egyptians of old. As soon as the 
de'v is off the grass in the mornings they take short 

* Sir J. E. Tcnnent's " Ceylon," i. 247 



Grasshopjicrs. 303 

flights, as if to prepare for the day's work, and 
about nine o'clock, rise in ck)ud after cloud and fly 
off. Ahout noon the numbers seem greatest. The 
light is then })al])ably obscured — there is an 
unearthly ashen light over every thing — the air 
is filled as if with flakes of snow, sometimes to 
nearly a thousand feet in height, and changes from 
blue to silver-gray, or to ash or lead color, as the 
clouds grow deeper or diminish, a quivering motion 
filling it, as the light strikes on the myriads of mov- 
ing wings. A sound, indescribable, but overpower- 
ing, from the thought of its source, comes down 
fi'oni the vast hosts, filling the mind with a sense 
of awe and amazement. Such flights have hitherto 
been seen and heard only outside the settled parts 
of Canada, but, in every part of it there are multi- 
tudes. I have seen them in countless thousands in 
the fields and on the roads, and have often caught 
them to look at the wonderful beauty of their 
limbs, which are finished far more elaborately than 
the finest ornament, and are suited to the habits 
and wants of the creature in the most admirable 
manner. 

The summer of the second year saw a diminution 
of our family circle, by the departure of Fredeiick 
and David to the United States, to push their for- 
tunes there. They did not like farming, and were 
attracted by the population and wealth of the 
States, as compared with Canada. It was a sad 
time with us who remained, when they left us. In 



804 Frederick and iJavid leave Canada. 

tliose days a great many young men left the. prov- 
ince, from the difficulty of finding suitable em])loy- 
ment in it. Where nearly all were farmers, and 
money was very scarce, and the towns mere vil- 
lages, there was, of course, very little to do, and it 
was not to be wondered at that young nu-n did not 
relish the thought of spending their lives as day- 
laborers on a })iece of ground, with no better 
remuneration for hard work than the food they ate 
and the rough clothing they wore. Any thing 
more was not, in those days, to be hoped for. 
Since then, indeed, there has been a great change. 
The first race of settlers have made their farms 
valuable by many years' hard work and careful 
culture, and tine brick houses have taken the j)lace 
of the shanties and log-houses which served at first. 
Some years of high prices made them all think 
their fortunes sure at once, and every one got his 
gig and his piano, and the girls went to boarding- 
schools, and the young men idled and flaunted 
round in fine clothes. If fewer leave Canada for 
the States now, it is not because they are any 
fonder than ever of hard work. Even where their 
father's farms would pay for hiring men to work 
them, they like to be gentlemen, and flock in 
crowds to turn doctors or lawyers in as easy a way 
«is possible. It is wonderful how many there are 
of both these professions, and how many more 
hurry on to enter them. But there were no such 
oper.ir.fTS in the early days of our settlement, and 



Hard Struj<jles. o^o 

iny brotliers must either luivc plodded on, driving 
oxen and lioeing, }»lou:;liing, luirrowing, and tlie 
like, or have left ior the great eountry across the 
rivei'. Theydid not lind lite >ery sunny, however, 
even in the States, and both had hard struggles at 
first to get on. Poor Fivderick, intleed, never got 
very lar uj) in the world, a fever eutting him off 
some years after, when he was on a joui'ney in tlie 
South. lie died without a creature he knew near 
him, and indeed we did not know that he was 
gone till nearly a year after. David gradually 
made his way, and has long been comfortably set- 
tled in a rising town in one of the Western States ; 
but his advancement rose from his having had the 
iiood fortune to buy some land where a town <rrew 
u]) shortly after, which enabled him to make a 
good deal of money. Our household, when they 
had left us, was very quiet compared with the past 
— only Robert, Henry, and 1 remaining, with n)y 
two sisters as the mistresses of the mansion. 

What a curious Robinson-Crusoe life we led in 
many ways in those first years. A barrel raised 
on a stand, the bottom full of holes, and covered 
with a layer of straw, and a number of channels 
irouced out in the board on which it rested, formed 
the primitive machine for our soap-making. All 
the ashes from the fires were throwii into the bar 
rel, and, when it was full, a quantity of water 
poured into it made the alkaline ley that Avas 
needed, a pail at the edge of the board below 
26* 



306 Soaj)-makui(/. 

catching it as it drained off. In summer time il 
was enouo;li merely to throw this ley into another 
barrel, put in the fat left from our daily table, and 
stir the mixture together now and then, and tin' 
sun made soaj) of it, Avithout any further trouble on 
our j)art. In colder weather it had to be put on 
tlie Hre until the desired transmutation had been 
effected. The ley looked so very like strong tea, 
that I was often afraid of some accident, where any 
of it had been left in a cup or bowl. To drink it 
would have been certain and awful death, as we 
did n(^t then know how to neutralize the effect if 
we had taken it. Noah Nash, a young lad in the 
neighborhood, was all but fatally poisoned by it one 
day ; indeed, nothing saved him but his ])resence 
of mind, and the fact that he had an acid in the 
house. Chancing to come in very much heated, 
and seeing a cupful of nice strong-looking tea in 
the window, he swallowed nearly the whole of it 
before he had time to think that, instead of tea, it 
was the terrible alkali tJiat had been drawn from 
the ashes. The serious consequences of his mis- 
take Hashed on him in an instant. Snatching a 
tumbler, he rushed to the cellai', wliere, prov- 
identially, there h;t])pened to be a barrel of vinegar, 
and in a moment filled the glass, and drank down 
successive draughts of it, and was thus saved, the 
acid effectually neutralizing the alkali in the stom- 
ach ; but, quick as he had been, his mouth and 
t^-.roat were burned to such a degree by the potash, 



Home-made Candles. 307 

tliiit the skin of the month peeled away, day after 
ilav, ill strips, unci he had to be fed on tlie simplest 
jjivparations K)n^ afterwards. Our candles were a 
I ranch of home manufacture in whicli we rather 
excelled after a time, though, to tell tlie truth, the 
(|nantity used was not very great. We had 
hoiight candle-moulds of till, and put aside any Hit 
?iii.alile for candles, till we had enough to make 
what wovdd till them; and then, what threading 
the wicks hito the moulds at one end, and tying 
them over little pieces of wood at the other — what 
proud encomiums over one that kept fair in the 
middle — Avhat a laugh at another which had in 
some eccentric way run down one side of the tal- 
low, leaving the whole round of the candle undis- 
turbed by any intrusion of the cotton. But we 
would not have made the fortune of any tallow- 
chandler had we had to buy all we burned, for we 
only lighted one at tea, or for a minute or two on 
goino; to bed, or to enable some one to read, when 
a craving for literary food set in. Lumps of pine, 
full of resin, were our more customary style of 
illumination, its flaming brightness, leaping and 
flarino; thouo;li it was, sufficing for our ordinary 
requirements. We used to sit for hours round the 
fire, talking and dozing ; to read was a huge effort, 
after hard work all day, and it was too cold, while 
the fire was kept up, to sit at any distance from it. 
In some houses I have known candh^s kept as 
sacredly for doing honor to a stranger as if they 



608 llude Accommodation. 

Iiad been made of silver. A rag in some grease, 
in a saucer, usually served tor a lann", and an inch 
or two of candle was only brought out when a 
guest was about to retire. Many a time I have 
known even visitors, in the rough bush, sent to btd 
in the dark. We were, however, in some thingj, 
wonderfully bef(jre the jieople settled back from the 
I'iver. Most of them were content to put up ^^I^h 
the very rudest accommodation and conveniences; 
one room, containing several beds, often holdnig 
not only a whole household, but any passing stran- 
ger. How to get out and in, unseen, was the 
great difficulty. I have often been in trouble about 
it myself, but it nnist surely have been worse for 
the young women of the family. As to any basin 
or ewer in the room, they were Capuan luxuries in 
the wikl bush. "I'll thank you for a basin, Mrs. 
Smith," said I, one morning, anxious to make my- 
self comfortable for the day, after having enjoyed her 
husband's hospitality overnight. It was gloriously 
bright outside, though the sun had not yet shown 
himself over the trees. " Come this way, Mr. 
Stanley ; I'll give it you here," said Mrs. Smith. 
Out she went, and lifted a small round tin pie-dish, 
that would hold hardly a quart, poured some water 
into it from tlie pail at the door, which held tlie 
breakfast water as avcII, and set it on the top of a 
stump, close at hand, with the injunction to " make 
haste, for there was a hole in the bottom, and if I 
didn't be quick the water would all be gone." 



Writing Letters. 309 

Luckily, I was all ready ; but tlicrc w.»h no ofTer of 
soap, and so I had to make my hands fl}- hither and 
thither at a great rate, and finish as best 1 could by 
a hard rubbing with a canvas towel. 

To write a letter in those days was by no means 
a light task. Ink was a rare commodity, and stood 
a great deal of water before it was done. When 
we had none, a piece of Indian-ink served pretty 
well ; and when that was lost, we used to mix 
gunpowder and vinegar together, and make a kind 
of faintly-visible pigment out of the two. The only 
paper we could get was dreadful. How cruelly the 
pen used to dab through it ! How invincibly 
shabby a letter looked on it ! The post-oflice was 
in a store kept by a French Canadian, and was 
limited enough in its arrangements. I remembei 
taking a letter one day a little later than was right, 
as it appeared. " The mail's made up, Mr. Stanley," 
said the post-master, " and it's against the law to 
open it when it's once sealed ; but I suppose I may 
as well oblige a friend." So saying, he took down 
a piece of brown paper from the shelf behind him, 
cut round some seals which were on the back of it, 
and exposed the " mail ; " which, forsooth, I found 
consisted of a single letter ! Mine was presently 
laid peacefully at the side of this earlier sharer of 
postal honor, and I hope did not make the bundle 
too heavy for the mail-boy's saddle-bags. 

It used to amuse us to see how readily every one 
round us took to new occupations, if any thing 



SIO New Occupations. 

hindered Lis continuing tlio one in wliicli lie liad 
previously been engaged. You would hear of a 
tailor turning freshwater sailor, and buying a flat- 
bottomed scow, to take goods from one })art of the 
river to another ; one shoemaker turned miller, and 
another took to making and sellino; " lumber." A 
young lad, the son of a minister, who wished to get 
a good education, first hired himself out to cbop 
cord-wood, and when he had made enough to buy 
books, and keep a reserve on hand, he engaged 
with a minister over the river, who had an " acail- 
eniy," to give liim tuition, in I'eturn for having his 
horse cleaned, and the house-wood split. Woiking 
thus, he gained Latin and Greek enough to go to 
colk'ge ; hut had to return to his axe, and work for 
ancjther winter, to get money to j)ay the expenses 
of the first session. This obtained, oft" he set, and 
ended by taking the degree of M. A. at Yale College, 
Connecticut. In the mean time, however, a change 
had passed over his mind as to becoming a clergy- 
man ; and instead of seeking a church, he Avent in- 
to partnership with his brother in the patent medi- 
cine trade, in which calling, T suj)pose, he is now 
engaged in one of the United States' cities. 

I was once travelling on a winter night, in a 
public stage, on the edge of Lake Ontario. The 
vehicle was a high wagon, with a linen cover 
stretched over a roimd framework, like a gipsy tent. 
I was the only passenger, and had taken my place 
in the body of the machine. This did not suit the 



The Parson for Driver. 311 

driver, liowever, who seemed to feel lonely ; aiv.l, 
after a time, turning round to me, said — "I guess 
we'd be better togetlier this cold night. Come this 
^vay — wont you?" Of course, 1 instantly com- 
plied ; and then received, among much various 
information on matters interesting to coach-drivers, 
a narrative of his own life, a portion of which I 
still remember : 

" I'm a reg'lar preacher, you see," said he. "" I 
was on the circuit round Framley for one turn, and 
they promised pretty fair, but I didn't get enoi^gli 
to keep house on. Then I got changed to Do/er 
circuit, and that was worse. Says I to my wife — 
' Wife,' says I, ' preachin' wont keep our pot bilin,' 
anyhow — I must scare up somethin' else, somehow.' 
So I heard that there was a new stage to be put on 
at Brownsville ; and I went to Squire Brown, and 
told him that, if he liked, I'd drive it ; and so, 
here I am — for, you see, the mail-stage has to go, 
even if a parson should have to drive it;" and he 
ended with a broad grin and a long laugh — ha — 
ha — iia ! 



312 Amerieanumt. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Amencamsms. — Our poultry. — Tlie wasps. — Tlieir nests. — 
" Bob's " skill in killing them. — Raccoons. — A hunt. — Rac- 
coon c<ake. — The town of Busaco. — Summer " sailing " — Boy 
drowned. — French settlers. 

WE were struck, as every new comer is, by the 
new meanings put by Canadians on words, 
tlie new connections in which they used them, and 
the extraordinary way in whicli some were pro- 
nounced. Of course, we heard people " guessing " 
at every turn, and whatever any one intended 
doing, he spoke of as " fixing." You would hear 
a man say, that his wagon, or his chimney, or his 
gun, must he " fixed ; " a girl would be ready to 
take a walk with you, as soon as she had " fixed 
herself; " and the baby was always " fixed" in the 
morning, when Avashed and dressed for the day. 
" Catherine," said a husband one day to his wife, 
in my hearing, pronouncing the last syllable of her 
name, so as to rhyme with line, " I calculate that 
them apples '11 want regulatin'," referring to some 
that were drying in the sun. They " reckon " at 
every third sentence. A well-informed man is said 
to be " Avell posted up " in some particular subject. 



Americanisms. 



313 



istead of " what," they very commonly say 
how," in asking questions. A pony was praised 
) me as being " as fat as mud." In place of our 
s;clamations of surprise at the communication of 
iiy new fact, the listener will exclaim, " I want to 
now." Any log, or trunk of a tree, or other 
ngle piece of timber, is invariably a " stick," even 
it be long enough for a mast. All the stock of 
timber-yard is alike " lumber." An ewer is " a 
itcher ; " a tin-pail is " a kettle ; " a servant is " a 
^Ip ; " an employer is " a boss ; " a church pew is 
a slip ; " a platform at a meeting is " a stage ; " 
lildren are "juveniles ; " and a baby is " a babe." 
1 pronouncing the word engine, or ride, or point, 
• any other word with vowels prominent in it, if 
ju would imitate a Canadian, you would need to 
)en your mouth very wide, and make as much of 
ich sound as you can. Of course, I speak only of 
le country folks, native born ; the town people, 
id the educated classes, generally speak as correctly 
1 the same classes in England. We cannot help 
jticing, moreover, that all these corruptions are 
ifling compared with those which we find in the 
)pular dialects of different parts of our own country, 
ou can travel all through Canada and understand 
ery thing you hear, except a word now and then ; 
it at home, to pass from one shire to another is 
ten like passing to a different people, so far as 
gards the language. The great amount of travel- 
ig now-a-days compared with the fixed life of our 



S14 Our Poultry. 

forefathers, may serve to account for this. People 
of every nation meet in Canada, and all come to 
speak very nearly alike, because they move about 
so much ; but the various races that settled in 
England or Scotland ages ago kept together closely, 
and consequently each learned to speak in a waj^ 
of its own. 

Our poultry increased very soon after our com- 
mencing on the river, until it became quite a flock ; 
but we had a good deal of trouble with them. The 
weasels were very destructive to the chickens, and 
so were the hen-hawks, and chicken-hawks, which 
were always prowling round. But the hens raan- 
ao-ed to beat off the last of these enemies, and a 
terrible noise they made in doing so. The whole 
barn-yard population used to give Robert great 
annoyance, by flying over the fence he had put up 
round a piece of ground set apart as a garden ; but 
he succeeded in terrifying them at last, by rushing 
out Avith a long whip whenever they made their 
appearance. The veiy sight of him was enough, 
after a time, to send them off" with outstretched 
wings and necks, and the most amazing screeches 
and cackling ; it was laughable to see their conster- 
nation and precipitate flight. Our turkeys were a 
nuisance as well as a comfort to us : tliey were 
much given to wandering, and so stupid withal, 
that if they once got into the woods we rarely saw 
them again. The only plan was to have their wings 
cut close, and to keep them shut up in the barn- 



Large Quantities of Eggs. 315 

yard. In compensation for this trouble, however, 
we took ample revenge both on them and the cocks 
^nd hens, alike in person and in the harvest of eggs, 
which formed a main element in most of our dishes. 
We needed all we could get. As to eggs, it seemed 
as if any quantity would have been consumed. 
There was to be a " bee " one time, to raise a second 
barn ; and my sisters were in great concern becaus 
they could not find out where the hens were laying. 
At last, they saw one go down a hole in the barn 
floor, and instantly concluded they had discovered 
the secret hoard. A plank was forthwith lifted, 
and there, sure enough, were no less than twenty 
dozen of eggs lying in one part or another. It was 
hard work to get them out, but Henry and I helped, 
and we brought them all to the house. In a week 
or ten days there were not two-dozen left. The 
men who had attended the " bee," and one or two 
whom we kept on at wages, had devoured them all 
in cakes and puddings, or in the ordinary way. 
But what would these bush-fellows not get down ? 
One day, we had a laborer with us, and Eliza, to 
please him, set out a large glass dish of preserves, 
holding, certainly, a pound weight at the least. 
She thought, of course, he would take a little to his 
bread ; but his notions on the subject were very 
different, for, drawing the dish to him, and taking 
up a tablespoon, he supped down the whole in a 
succession of huge mouthfuls. I have known a 
hired man eat a dozen of eggs at his break fast ! 



516 Wasjys. 

The wasps were very numerous round the house 
in summer. A nest of these creatures ensconced 
themselves in a hole between two logs, in the front 
part of it, and, as they never trouble us, we did not 
trouble them. But not so our little terrier, Bob. 
The mouth of the nest was about a yard from the 
ground, and admitted only one at a time. Below 
this. Bob would take his seat for hours together, 
watching each arrival ; sometimes letting them go 
in peaceably, but every now and then jumping up 
at them, with his lips drawn back, and giving a 
snap which seldom failed to kill them. The little 
fellow seemed to have quite a passion for w^asp- 
hunting. The dead proofs of his success would 
often lie thick over the ground by evening. How 
the colony ever bore up against his attacks I cannot 
imagine. One day we saw John Robinson, a la- 
borer, whom we had engaged, rushing down in hot 
haste from the top of the field, flinging his arms 
about in every direction, and making the most 
extraordinary bobbing and fighting, apparently at 
nothing. But, as he got near, he roared out, " I've 
tumbled a wasp's-nest, and they're after me," and 
this was all we could get out of him for some time. 
Indeed they followed him quite a distance. He 
Had been lifting a log that was imbedded in the 
ground, when, behold ! out rushed a whole townful, 
sendino; him off at once in ignominious flio-lit. I 
used to think the nests of the wasps, which we 
sometimes found hanirino; from branches in the 



Raccoons. 317 

voods, most wonderful specimens of insect manu 
hcture. They were oval in form, with the moutli 
it the bottom, and looked often not unlike a clumsilv 
nade boy's top. But of what material do you 
hink they were constructed? Of paper — real 
rue paper, of a greyish color, made by the wasp.s 
gnawing off very small pieces of decayed wood, 
vliicli they bruise and work up till it changes its 
'haracter, and becomes as much paper as any we 
^an make ourselves. It is wonderful that men 
hould not have found out, from such a lesson, the 
irt of making this most precious production much 
ooner than they did. 

The raccoons, usually called 'coons, were a great 
luisance Avhen the corn was getting ripe. They 
^anie out of the woods at night, and did a gi-eat 
leal of mischief in a very short time. We used to 
Hint them by torchliglit, the torches being strips 
)f hickory bark, or lumps of fat pine. We could 
lave done nothing, however, without the help of 
)ur dogs, who tracked them to the trees in which 
hey had taken refuge, and then we shot them by 
he help of the lights, amidst prodigious excitement 
md commotion. It was very dangerous to catch 
lold of one of them if it fell wounded. They 
'ould twist their heads so far round, and their skin 
(Vas so loose, that you were never sure you would 
lot get a bite in whatever way you held them, 
riie Weirs, close to us, got skins enough one 
lutumn to make fine robes for their sleigh. I 

27* 



ol8 A Raccoon Hunt. 

never knew but one man avIio had eaten raccoon, 
and he was no wiser than he needed to be. He 
was a farm-laborer, who stammered in his speech, 
and hved all alone, and was deplorably ignorant. 
Meeting him one day after a hunt, in which he had 
got a large raccoon for his share,, he stopped me to 
speak of it thus — ' Gre-e-at rac-c-coon that — 
there was a p-pint of oil in him — it m-made a-a 
m-most beautiful shortcake ! " I wished him joy 
of his taste. 

1 remember one raccoon hunt which formed a 
subject of conversation for long after. Mr. Weir's 
field of Indian corn had been sadly injured, and 
our own was not much better, so we resolved on 
destroying some of the marauders if possible. All 
the young fellows for miles up and down the river, 
gathered in the afternoon, to get a long talk before- 
hand, and to make every preparation. Some of 
us saw to the torches — that there were plenty of 
them, and that they were of the right kind of 
wood ; others looked to the guns, to have them 
properly cleaned, and the ammunition ready. " I 
say, Ned Thompson," said one, "I hope you wont 
be making such a noise as you did last time, fright- 
ening the very dogs." But the speaker was only 
told, in return, to keep out of the way of everybody 
else, and not run the risk of being taken for a 'coon 
himself as he went creeping along. In due time 
all work was over for the night on our farm, the 
dogs collected, a hearty supper enjoyed, amidst the 



S Raccoon Hunt. 319 

boasts of some and the jokes of others, and off we 
?L't. The n^ocn was very young, but it hung in 
the clear hvsavens hke a silver bow. A short walk 
brouglit us to the forest, and here we spread our- 
selves, so as to take a larger sw^eep, intending that 
the two wings shovild gradually draw round and 
make part of a circle. We could see the crescent 
of the moon, every now and then, through the 
fretted roof of branches, but it would have been 
very dark on the surface of the ground had not the 
torches lent us their brightness. As it was, many 
a. stumble checked our steps. It was rough work 
— over logs, into wet spots, round trees, through 
brush, with countless stubs and pieces of wood to 
keep you in mind that you must lift your feet well, 
like the Indians, if you did not wish to be tripped 
up. The light gleaming through the great trees 
on the wild picture of men and dogs, now glaring 
in the red flame of the torches, now hidden by the 
smoke, was very exciting. The dogs had not, as 
yet, scented any thing, but they gradually got 
ahead of us. Presently we heard the first baying 
and barking. We forthwith made for the spot, 
creeping up as silently as possible, while the dogs 
kept the distracted raccoon from making its escape. 
How to get a glimpse of it was the trouble. 
" There's nothing there that I can see," whispered 
Brown to me ; but the dogs showed that they 
thought differently, by the way they tore and 
Bcratchnd at the bottom of the tree. What with 



820 The Town of Busaco. 

the leaves, tlie feebleness of the moonlight, and oui 
distance from the object, eveiy eye was strained, 
for a time, without seeing a sign of any thing living. 
At last, Henry motioned that he saw it, and sure 
enough there it was, its shape visible far up on a 
branch. Another moment and the sharp crack of 
his rifle heralded its death and descent to the 
ground. We had good success after this first lucky 
shot, which had been only one of many fired at 
what seemed to be the raccoon, but had been only a 
knot in the tree, or, perhaps, a shadow. We did 
not come home till late, when, with dogs almost as 
tired as ourselves, the whole party re-assembled, 
each bearing off his spoils with him if he had won 
any. 

I was walking up the road one afternoon with 
my brother, when we came to an opening on the 
right liand, apparently only leading into pathless 
woods. Stopping me, however, Henry turned and 
asked, " If I saw yon post stuck up in the little 
open ? " It was some time before I could make it 
out. At last I noticed what he alluded to — simply 
a rough post, six feet high, stuck into the ground, 
in the middle of unbroken desolation. " That's 
the centre of the market-place in the town of Bu- 
saco, that is to be," said he. " All this grovmd is 
surveyed for a city, and is laid out in building lots, 
- — not in farms." I could not help laughing. 
There was not a sign of human habitation in sight, 
and the post must have been there for years. 



Tlie Town of Busaco. 321 

When it will be a town it is very hard to conjec- 
ture. It stands on the outside of a swampy belt, 
which must have deterred any one from settling in 
it, and towns don't go before agTicultural improve- 
ment, but follow it, in such a country as Canada, 
or, indeed, anywhere, except in a merely manu- 
facturing district, or at some point on a busy line 
of travel. Some time after, a poor man effected 
one great step towards its settlement, by a very 
unintentional improvement. He had a little 
money, and thought that if he dug a deep, broad 
ditch, from the swamp to the river, he could get 
enough Avater to drive a mill, which he intended to 
build close to the bank. But it turned out, after 
the ditch was dug, and his money gone, that the 
water, which he thought came into the swamp 
from springs, was nothing but rain, that had 
lodged in the low places, and had been kept there 
by the roots of trees and the want of drainage. 
For a time, the stream was beautiful, but, after a 
little, the swamp got better, and the stream dimin 
ished, until, in a few weeks, the channel was dry, 
and the swamp became good land. I hope the poor 
fellow had bought it before commencins his ditch. 
If so, he would make money after all, as his im- 
provement raised its value immensely. 

A number of the young men of the humbler 
class along the river, used to go away each summer 
" sailing " — that is, they hired as sailors on the 
American vessels, which traded in whole fleets 



322 Summer '•'•SaiUng.'''' 

between the eastern and western towns on the 
great lakes. It was a very good thing for them 
that they could earn money so easily, but the 
employment was not always free from danger. 
One lad, whom I knew very well — William 
Forth, the son of a decent Scotch tailor — was lost 
in it in the autumn of our second year. He had 
sailed for Lake Superior, and did not return at the 
time expected. Then his friends began to be anx 
ious, especially when they heard the news of a 
great stoi'm in the north-west. He was never 
heard of again, and no doubt perished with all the 
crew, his vessel having foundered in the gale. 
Years after, it was reported that a schooner, sailing 
along the upper coast of Lake Huron, came upon 
the wreck of a small ship, down in the clear 
waters, and found means of hooking up enough to 
show that it was the one in which our poor neigh- 
bor's son had been engaged. Curiously and sadly 
enough, a second son of the same parents met a 
miserable death some years after. He was attend- 
ing a threshing-mill, driven by horses, and had for 
his part to thrust in the straw to " feed it ; " but 
he, unfortunately, thrust it in too far, and was him- 
self drawn in, and crushed between the innumera- 
ble teeth by Avhich the grain is pressed out. Be- 
fore the machine could be stopped, poor James was 
cut almost to pieces. Thus even the peaceful St. 
Ciair had its share in the trials that follow man 
under all skies. 



A Boy Drowned. 



323 



OccasionaJy, accidents and calamities of this kind 
would happen close to ns, and I could not but be 
struck at the depth of feeling to which they gave 
rise amidst a thin population. The tenant on the 
only let farm in the neighborhood, who lived a 
mile from us, lost a beautiful boy in a most distress- 
ing way. There was a wood wharf close to his 
house, from the end of which the lad used to bathe 
on fine summer evenings. A number of them 
were amusing themselves thus, one afternoon, 
when Mrs. Gilbert, the wife of the person of whom 
I speak, coming out from her work, chanced to 
look at them, and saw one who was diving; and 
swimming, as she thought, very strangely. A lit- 
tle after, they brought her the news that her boy 
was drowned, and it turned out that it had been 
his struggles at which she had been looking with 
such unconcern. The poor woman took to her 
bed for weeks directly she found it out, and seemed 
broken-hearted ever after. 

The number of French in our neighborhood, and 
the names of the towns and places on the map, all 
along the western lakes and rivers, often struck 
me. Beginning with Nova Scotia, we trace them 
the whole way — proofs of the sway France once 
had in North America. The bays and headlands, 
from the Atlantic to the Far West, bear French 
names. For instance. Cape Breton, and its capi- 
tal, Louisbuig, and Maine, and Vermont, in the 
States. All Lower Canada Avas French : then wa 



324 An Indian Device. 

have Detroit on Lake St. Clair ; Sault Ste. Marie 
at Lake Superior ; besides a string of old French 
names all down the Mississippi, at the mouth of 
which was the whilom French province of Louisi- 
ana, on the Gulf of Mexico. This shows signifi- 
cantly the great vicissitudes that occur in the storj 
of a nation. But our own history has taught us 
the same lesson. All the United States were once 
British provinces. 

I had come out early one morning, in spring, to 
look at the glorious river which lay for miles like a 
mirror before me, when my attention was attracted 
to a canoe with a great green bush at one end of it, 
floating, apparently empty, down the current. I 
soon noticed a hand, close at the side, slowly scull- 
ing it by a paddle, and keeping the bush down the 
stream. As it glided past, I watched it narrowly. 
A great flock of wild ducks were splashing and 
diving at some distance below ; but so slowly and 
silently did the canoe drift on, that they did not 
seem to heed it. All at once, a puff of smoke from 
the bush, and the sound of a gun, with the fall of 
a number of ducks, killed and wounded, on the 
water, plainly showed what it meant. An Indian 
instantly rose up in the canoe, and paddled with all 
haste to the spot to pick up the game. It was a 
capital plan to cheat the poor birds, and get near 
enouo;h to kill a good number. There were im- 
mense flocks of waterfowl, after the ice broke up, 
each year ; but they were so shy that we were 



Coolers Paradise. 32r» 

very little the b-'tter for them. It was very differ- 
ent in earUer days, before population increased, and 
incessant alarm and pursuit had made them wild, 
for the whole province must once have been a 
great sporting ground. There is a marsh on Lake 
Ontario, not far fi'om Hamilton, called Coote's 
Paradise, from the delight which an officer of that 
name found in the myriads of ducks, etc., which 
thronge J it thirty or forty years ago. 



28 



326 Apple-beeg. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Apple-bees. — Orchcards. — Gorgeous display of apple-blossom. — A 
meeting in the woods. — Ttie ague. — Wild parsnips. — Man lost 
in the woods. 

WE had a great deal of fun when our orchard 
got up a little, and when we were able to 
trade with our neighbors for fruit, in what they 
used to call " apple-paring bees." The young folks 
of both sexes were invited for a given evening in 
the autumn, and came duly provided with apple- 
parers, which are ingenious contrivances, by which 
an apple, stuck on two prongs at one end, is pared 
by a few turns of the handle at the other. It is 
astonishing to see how quickly it is done. Nor is 
the paring all. The little machine makes a final 
thrust through the heart of the apple, and takes out 
the core, so as to leave nothing to do but to cut 
what remains in pieces. The object of all this par- 
ing is to get apples enough dried for tarts during 
winter, the pieces when cut being threaded in long 
strings, and hung up till they shrivel and get a 
leather-like look. When wanted for use, a little 
boilino; makes them swell to their original size 
again, and bring back their softness. You may 



Orchards. 



327 



imagine how plentiful tlie fruit must be to make 
such a liberal use of it possible, as that which you 
SCO all through Canada. You can hardly go into 
any house in the bush, however poor, without hav- 
ing a large bowl of " apple sass " set before you — 
that is, of apple boiled in maple sugar. The young 
folks make a grand night of it when the " bee " 
comes off. The laughing and frolic is unbounded ; 
some are busy with their sweethearts ; some, of a 
grosser mind, are no less busy with the apples, 
devouring a large proportion of what they pare ; 
and the whole proceedings, in many cases, wind up 
with a dance on the barn-floor. 

While speaking of orchai'ds and fruit, I am re- 
minded of the district along the River Thames, 
near Lake St. Clair. To ride through it in June, 
when the apple-blossom was out, was a sight as 
beautiful as it was new to my old country eyes. A 
great rolling sea of white and red flowers rose and 
fell with the und.ulations of the landscape, the green 
lost in the universal blossoming. So exhaustless, 
indeed, did it seem, even to the farmers themselves, 
that you could not enter one of their houses with- 
out seeing quantities of it stuck into jugs and bowls 
of all sorts, as huge bouquets, like ordinary flowers, 
or as if, instead of the blossom of splendid apples, it 
had been only hawthorn. Canadian apples are in- 
deed excellent — that is, the good kinds. You see 
thousand of bushels small and miserable enough, 
but they are used only for pigs, or for throwing by 



328 A Meeting in the Woods. 

the cartload into cider-presses. The eati^ig and 
cooking apples would make any one's mouth water 
to look at them — so large, so round, so finely tint- 
ed. As to flavor, there can surely be nothing- 
better. Families in towns buy them by the barrel : 
in the country, even a ploughman tliinks no more 
of eating them than if they were only transformed 
potatoes. Sweet cider, in its season, is a very com- 
mon drink in many parts. You meet it at the rail- 
way-stations, and on little stands at the side of the 
street, and are offered it in private houses. Canada 
is indeed a great country for many kinds of fruit. 
I have already spoken of the peaches and grapes : 
the plums, damsons, melons, pears, and cherries, 
are equally good, and equally plentiful. Poor 
Hodge, who, in England, lived on a few shillings a 
week, and only heard of the fine things in orchards, 
feasts like a lord, when he emigrates, on all their 
choicest productions. 

They were wonderful people round us for their 
open-air meetings — very zealous and very noisy. 
I was on a visit at some distance in the summer- 
time, and came on a gathering in the woods. 
There were no ministers present, but some laymen 
conducted the services. All round, were wagons 
with the horses unyoked, and turned round to feed 
fi'om the vehicles themselves, as mangers. Some 
of the mtending hearers sat on the prostrate logs 
that lay here and there, others stood, and some re- 
mamed iir. their conveyances. There was no prep- 



Tlie Ague. 329 

aration of benclies, or convenience of any kind. It 
so happened that I came only at the close. The 
proceedings were over, and there was nothing go- 
ing on, for some time, bnt a httle conversation 
among the leaders. In one wagon I noticed a 
whole htter of pigs, and found, on asking how they 
came to be there, that they belonged to a good 
M'oman who had no one with whom to leave tliem 
at home, and had brought them with her, that she 
might attend to their wants, and enjoy the meetings, 
at the same time. There were often open-air as- 
semblies in the woods. Temperance societies, with 
bands of music, drew great crowds. Rough boards 
were provided for seats, and a rough platform did 
for the speeches. All the country side, old and 
young, went to them, for most of the people in the 
country districts are rigid teetotallers. There are 
poor drunkards enough, after all, but it is a wonder 
there are no more, when whiskey is only a shilling 
or eighteenpence a gallon. 

The great plague of the river was the ague, which 
seized on a very large number. The poisonous va- 
pors that rise from the undrained soil, in which a 
great depth of vegetable matter lies rotting, must be 
the cause, for when a district gets settled, and opened 
to the sun, so that the surface is dried, it disappears. 
I never had it myself, I am happy to say, but all 
my brothers suffered from its attacks, and poor Eliza 
shivered with it for months together. It is really a 
di-eadful disease. It begins with a burninii fever, 

28* 



330 Wild Parsnips. 

occasioning a tliirst which cannot be satisfied by 
drinking any quantity of water, and when this passes 
off, every bone shakes, the teeth rattle, the whole 
frame quivers, with the most agonizing cold. All 
the bedclothes in the house are found to be insuffi- 
cient to keep the sufferer warm. After a day's 
misery like this, the attack ceases, and does not 
return till the second day. Its weakening effects 
are terrible. If severe, the patient can do nothing 
even in the interval of the attacks, and they some- 
times continue for seven and eight months together. 
The only real remedy known is quinine, and it is 
taken in quantities that astonish a stranger. Of 
late years tliere have been far less of the disease in 
the older districts than formerly, and it is to be 
hoped that, some day, it will disappear altogether, 
but meanwhile it is a dreadful evil. It used to be a 
common English disease, but it is now nearly un- 
known in most parts of our country. Oliver Crom- 
well died of it, and in Lincoln it was one of the 
most prevalent maladies. I remember meeting an 
old Englishwoman who firmly believed in the old 
recipe for its cure, of a spider steeped in a glass of 
wine and swallowed with it. That was the way, 
she said, it had been cured in her part, and nothing 
could be better ! 

A terrible misfortune befel a worthy man residing 
back from the river, one spring, through his son — 
a growing boy — eating some wild parsnips in igno- 
rance of their being poisonous. The poor little 



Children in the Woods. 331 

fellow lingered for a time, and at last died in agony. 
This must be reckoned among the risks families run 
in the bush. I have known a number of cases of a 
similar kind. 

One day we were startled by a man crying to us 
from the road that two children of a settler, a few 
miles back, were lost in the woods, and that all the 
neighbors were out, searching for them. We lost 
no time in hurrying to the place, and found that 
the news was only too true. The two littles crea- 
tures — a sister and brother — had wandered into 
the woods to pull the early anemones, which come 
out with the wild leeks, by the sides of creeks and 
wet places, at the beginning of spring, and they had 
gradually run to one flower after another, till they 
were fairly lost. The excitement was terrible. 
Men and women alike left every thing, to seai'ch 
for them. The forest was filled with the sound of 
their names, which voice after voice called out, in 
hopes of catching an answer. Night came, and all 
the searchers returned unsuccessful, but there were 
others who kindled lights, and spent the darkness 
in their kind efforts. But it was of no use. Two 

— three — four — five — six days passed, and the 
lost ones were still in the great silent woods. At 
last, on the seventh day, they came on them, but 
almost too late. The two were lying on the ground 

— the little girl dead, the boy far gone. Tender 
nursing, however, brought him round, and he was 
able to tell, after a while, that they had wandfired 



332 Lost in the Woods. 

hither and thither, as long as they could, eating the 
wild leeks, bitter and burning as they are, until the 
two could go no further. He did not know that 
his sister was dead till they told him. It was touch- 
ing to see his father and mother swayed by the 
opposite feelings of grief for the dead, and joy for 
the living. 

Another time, in the winter, on a piercingly cold 
night, we were roused from our seats round the 
fire, by the cries of some one at a distance. Going 
to the door, we found it was an unfortunate fellow 
who had got bewildered by the snow covering the 
wagon tracks in a path through tlie bush, and who 
was trying to make himself heard, before the neigh- 
bors went to bed. It was lucky for him we had 
not done so, for our hours were very early indeed. 
It was so cold that we could only stand a few min- 
utes at the door by turns, but we answered his 
cries, and had the satisfaction of finding that he 
was getting nearer and nearer the open. At last, 
after about half an hour, he reached the high road, 
and was safe. But the fellow actually had not 
politeness to come up next day, or any time after, 
to say he was obliged by our saving his life. 

A poor woman, not far from us, had lost her 
husband in the forest, many years before, under 
circumstances of peculiar trial. She was then 
newly married, and a stranger in the country, and 
he had gone out to chop wood at some distance 
from their house, but had been unable to find his 



Lost in the Woods. 333 

wi^;, back. His wife and neighbors searched long 
and earnestly for him, but their utmost efforts failed 
to find him. Months passed on, and not a word 
was heard of him, until, at last, after more than a 
year, some persons came upon a human skeleton, 
many miles from the place, lying in the woods, 
with an axe at its side, the clothes o]i which showed 
that it was the long-lost man. He had wandered 
further and further from his home, living on what- 
ever he could get in the woods, till death, at last, 
ended his sorrows. 

I shall never forget the story of a man who had 
been lost for many days, but had, at last, luckily 
wandered near some human habitations, and had 
escaped. He was a timber-squarer — that is, he 
squared the great trees which were intended for 
exportation, the squaring making them lie closely 
together, and thus effecting a saving in freight, and 
had been employed on the Georgian Bay, amongst 
the huge pine forests from which so many of those 
wonderful masts, so much prized, are brought. 
His cabin w^as at a good distance from his work, 
which lay now at one point, and now" at another. 
Fortunately it was fine mild autumn weather, else 
he would have paid his life for his misadventure. 
On tlie morning of the unfortunate day, he had set 
out at a very early hour, leaving his wife and fam- 
ily in the expectation that he would return at night 
or witl m a few days at most. For a great wonder 
a fog chanced to be lying jn the ground, hiding 



334 Lost in the Woods. 

every thing at a few yard's distance, but he took it 
for granted that he knew the road, and never 
thought of any danger. On, therefore, he walked 
for some time, expecting, every moment, to come 
on some indication of his approach to his place of 
work. At last, the fog rose, and, to his surprise, 
showed that he had walked till nearly noon, and 
was in a spot totally unknown to him. Every tree 
around seemed the counterpart of its neighbor, the 
flowers and fern Avere on all sides the same ; nothing 
offered any distinguishing marks by which to help 
him to decide where he was. The path along 
which he had walked was a simple trail, the mere 
beaten footsteps of wood men or Indians, passing 
occasionally, and to add to his perplexity, every 
here and there other trails crossed it, at different 
angles, with nothing to distinguish the one from 
the other. 

It was not for some hours more, however, that 
he began to feel alarmed. He took it foi- granted 
he had gone too far, or had turned a little to one 
side, and that he had only to go back, to come to 
the place he wished to reach. Back, accordingly, he 
forthwith turned, resting only to eat his dinner which 
he had brought with him from home. But, to his 
utter dismay, he saw the sun getting lower and 
lower, without any sign of his nearing his " limit." 
Gray shades began to stretch through the trees ; 
the silence around became more oppressive as they 
increased ; the long white moss on the trees, as he 



Lost in the Woods. 335 

passed a swamp, looked the veiy image of desola- 
tion ; and, at last, he felt convinced that he was 
lost. As evening closed, every living thing around 
him seemed happy but he. Like the castaway on 
the ocean, who sees the sea-birds skimming the hol- 
lows of the waves or toppling over their crests, joy- 
ful, as if they felt at home, he noticed the squirrels 
disappearing in their holes ; the crows flying lazily 
to their roosts ; all the creatures of the day betaking 
themselves to their rest. There was no moon that 
night, and if there had been, he was too tired to 
walk further by its light. He could do no more 
than remain where he was till the morning came 
acrain. Sittino- down, with his back against a great 
tree, he thought of every thing by turns. Turning 
round, he prayed on his bended knees, then sat 
down again in his awful loneliness. Phosphoric 
lights gleamed from the decayed trees on the 
ground ; myriads of insects filled the air, and the 
hooting of owls, and the sweep of night-hawks and 
bats, served to fill his mind with gloomy fears, but 
ever and anon, his mind reverted to happier 
thoughts, and to a growing feeling of confidence 
that he should regain his way on the morrow. 

With the first light he was on his feet once more, 
after offering a prayer to his Maker, asking his help 
in this terrible trial. He had ceased to conjecture 
where he was, and had lost even the aid of a vague 
track. Nevertheless, if he could only push on, he 
thought he must surely make his escape before long, 



336 Lost in the Woods. 

The sun had a great sweep to make, and he was 
young and sti'ong. Faster and faster he pressed 
forward as the hours passed, the agony of liis mind 
th-iving him on the more hurriedly as his hopes 
grew fainter. Fatigue, anxiety, and hunger were 
meanwhile growino; more and more unbearable. 
His nerves seemed fairly unstrung, and as he threw 
himself on the ground to spend a second night in 
the wilderness, the shadow of death seemed to lower 
over him. Frantic at his awful position, he tore 
his hair, and beat his breast, and wept like a child. 
He might, he knew, be near home, but he might, 
on the other hand, be far distant from it. He had 
walked fifty miles he was sure, and where in this 
interminable wilderness had he reached ? His onl}'' 
food through the day had been some wild fruits 
and berries, which were very scarce, and so acrid 
that they pained his gums as he ate them. He had 
passed no stream, but liad found water in holes of 
fallen trees. What he suffered that night no one 
can realize who has not been in some similar 
extremity. He had no weapon but his axe, and 
hence, even if he came upon deer and other crea- 
tures, he could not kill them — there seemed no 
way to get out of the horrible labyrinth in which 
he was now shut up. From the morning of the 
third day his mind, he assured me, became so 
bewildered that he could recollect very little of 
what then took place. How he lived he could 
hardly say — it must have been on frogs, and 



Lost in the Woods. 387 

snakes, and grass, and Aveeds, as well as berries, for 
there were too few of this last to keep him alive. 
Once he was fortunate enough to come on a tor- 
toise, which he could not resist the temptation to 
kill, though he knew that if he followed it quietly 
it would guide him to some stream, and thus afford 
him the means of escape. Its raw flesh gave him 
two great meals. His clothes were in tatters, his 
face begrimed, his hair and beard matted, his ejes 
hot and bloodshot, and his strength was failing fost. 
On the tenth day he thought he could go no fur- 
ther, but must lie down and die. But deliverance 
Avas now at hand. As he la}^, half unconscious, 
from weakness of body and nervous exhaustion, he 
fancied he heard the drip of oars. In an instant 
every faculty was revived. His car seemed to 
gather unnatural quickness ; he could have heard 
the faintest sound at a great distance. Mustering 
all his strength, he rose, and with the utmost haste 
made for the direction from which the cheering 
sound proceeded. Down some slopes — up oppo- 
site banks — and there at last the broad water lay 
before him. He could not rest Avith the mere vis- 
ion of hope, so on he rushed through the thick 
brush, over the fretting of fallen timber and the 
brown carpet of leaves, till he reached the river- 
bank, Avhich Avas sloping at the point Avhere he 
emerged, a tongue of land jutting out into the 
Vi^ater, clear of trees. To the end of this, Avith 
anxiety indescribable, he ran, and kneeled in the 

29 



338 Loi<t. in the Woods. 

attitude of prayer at once to God for his merciful 
deliverance, and to man, when the boat should 
come, whose apjn-oach he now heard more clearly 
from afar, — that he might be taken to some human 
dwelling. The boat did come — his feeble cry 
reached it, and in a moment, when they saw his 
thin arms waving for help as he kneeled before 
them, the bows were turned to the shore, and he 
was taken on board — the lost was found ! He 
fainted as soon as he was rescued, and such was 
his state of exhaustion, that at first it seemed almost 
impossible to revive him. But by the care of his 
wife, to whom he was restored as soon as possible, 
he gradually gathered strength, and when I saw 
him some years after was hearty and vigorous. 
Tlie place where he was found was full thirty miles 
from his own house, and he must have wandered 
altogether at least a hundred and fifty miles — 
probably in a series of circles round nearly the same 
ftoints. 



•The Windfall:' 3S9 



CHAPTER XXI. 

A toraaao. — Bats. — Deserted lots. — American inquisitiveress. — 
An election agent. 

T HAVE already spoken of the belt of trees run- 
-■- nino; back some miles from us, familiarly called 
" The Windlall," from their having been thrown 
down by a hurricane many years before. Some 
years after, when living for a time in another part 
of the province, I had a vivid illustration of what 
these terrible storms really are. It was a fine day, 
and I was jogging along quietly on my horse. It 
was in the height of summer, and every thing 
around was in all the glory of the season. The tall 
mints, with their bright flowers, the lofty Aaron's 
rod, the beautiful Virginia creeper, the wild convol- 
vulus, and wild roses, covered the roadsides, and 
ran, as far as the light permitted them, into the 
openings of the forest. The countiy was a long 
roll of gentle undulations, with clear streamlets 
every here and there in the hollows. The woods 
themselves presented a perpetual picture of beauty 
as I rode along. High above, rose the great oaks, 
and elms, and beeches, and maples, with their tall 



S40 A Tornado. 

trunl\i free of branches till they stretched far over- 
head*; while round their feet, not too thickly, hut 
in such abundance as made the scene perfect, 
waved youno; trees of all these kinds, intermixed 
with silver birches and sumachs. My horse had 
stopped of his own accord to drink at one of the 
brooks tliat brawled under the rude bridges across 
the road, when, happening to look up, I noticed a 
strange appearance in the sky, which I had not 
oDserved before. A thick haze was descending on 
the earth, like the darkness that precedes a storm. 
Yet there was no other sign of any approaching 
convulsion of nature. There was a profound hush 
and gloom, but what it might forbode did not as yet 
appear. I was not, however, left long in igno- 
rance. Scarcely had my horse taken its last 
draught and forded across the brook, than a low 
murmuring sound in the air, coming from a dis- 
tance, and unlike any thing I had ever heard 
before, arrested my attention. A yellow spot in 
the haze towards the south-west likewise attracted 
my notice. The next moment the tops of the taller 
trees began to swing in the wind, which presently 
increased in force, and the light branches and 
twigs began to break off. I was glad I happened 
to be at an 0]:>en spot, out of reach of immediate 
danger, the edges of the brook beino- cleared for 
some distance on both sides. Two minutes more, 
and the storm burst on the forest in all its violence. 
Huge trees swayed to and fro under its rude shock 



A Tornado. 341 

like tlie masts of sliips on a tempestuous sea ; they 
rubbed and creaked like a sliip's timbers when she 
rolls, and the sky grew darker and darker, as if 
obscured by a total eclipse of the sun. It was evi- 
dent that the fury of the storm would not sweep 
through the open where I stood, but would spend 
itself on the woods before me. Meanwhile, as 1 
looked, the huge oaks and maples bent before the 
tornado, the air was thick with their huge limbs, 
twisted off in a moment, and the trees themselves 
were fixlling in hundreds beneath the irresistible 
power of the storm. I noticed that they always 
fell with their heads in the direction of the hurri- 
cane, as if they had been wrenched round and flung 
behind it as it passed. Some went down bodily, 
others broke across, all yielded and sank in ruin 
and confusion. The air got blacker and blacker 
— a cloud of branches and limbs of trees filled the 
wdiole breadth of the tempest, some of them flung 
by it, every now and then, high up in the air, or 
dashed with amazing violence to the ground. A 
few minutes more, and it swept on to make similar 
havoc in other parts. But it was long before the 
air was clear of the wreck of the forest. The 
smaller branches seemed to float in it as if upheld 
by some current that was sucked on by the hurri- 
cane, though unfelt on the surface of the grouud. 
In a surprisingly short time a belt of the woods, 
abovit an eighth of a mile in breadth, and running I 
cannot tell how far back, was one va^t chaos, 

29* 



342 A Tornado. 

tlirougli which no human efforts could find a way. 
Tlie same night, as we afterwards learned, the tor- 
nado had struck points incredibly distant, taking a 
vast sweep across Lake Ontario, ravaging a part 
of New York, and finally rushing away to the 
north in the neighborhood of Quebec. 

The destruction it caused was not limited to its 
ravages in the forest ; farmhouses, barns, orchards, 
and fences, were swept away like chaff. I passed 
one orchard in which every tree had been dragged 
up and blown away ; the fences for miles, in the 
path of the storm, were carried into the air like 
straws, never to be found again ; the water in a 
mill-pond by the roadside was lifted fairly out of it, 
and the bottom left bare. At one place a barn and 
stables had been wrenched into fragments, the con- 
tents scattered to the winds, and the very horses 
lifted into the air, and carried some distance. Saw- 
mills were stripped of their whole stock of " lum- 
ber," every plank being swept up into the vortex, 
and strewn no one knew whither. There were 
incidents as curious as extraordinary in the events 
of the day. A sheep was found on one farm, unin- 
jured, beneath a huge iron kettle, which had been 
carried off and capsized over the poor animal, as if 
In sport. Wherever the storm passed through, the 
forest was, from that moment, a tangled desolation, 
left to itself, except by the beasts that might choose 
a safe covert in its recesses. Thenceforth, the 
briars and bushes would have it for their own, and 



Bats. 343 

grow undisturbed. No human footstep would ever 
turn towards it till all the standing forest around 
had been cut down. 

The bats were very plentiful in summer, and 
used often to fly into the house, to the great terror 
of my sister Margaret, who used to be as afraid of 
a bat as Buffon was of a squirrel. Tliey were no 
laro-er than our English bats, and undistinguisha- 
ble from them to an ordinary eye. Almost as 
often as Ave went out on the fine warm evenings, 
we were atti'acted by their flying hither and thither 
below the branches of the trees, or out in the open 
ground, beating the air with great rapidity with 
their wonderful membranous wings. A bird pecu- 
liar to America used to divide attention with them 
in the twilight — the famous "whip-poor-will," 
one of the family of the goatsuckers ; of which, in 
England, the night-jar is a well-known example. 
It is amazing how distinctly the curious sounds, 
from which it takes its name, are given ; they are 
repeated incessantly, and create no little amuse- 
ment when they come from a number of birds at 
once. The flight of the whip-poor-will is very 
rapid, and they double, and twist, and turn in a 
surprising way. Their food is the large moths and 
insects, any of which, I should think, they could 
swallow, for it is true in their case at least, that 
their " mouth is ft'om ear to ear." The gape is 
enormous, reaching even behind the eye ; and woe 
betide any unfortunate moths or chaffers that may 



344 Deserted Lots. 

cross tlieir path. It sees perfectly by niglit, but is 
purblind by day, its huge eyes showing, the mo- 
ment you see it, that, like that of the owls, it is for' 
service in partial darkness. The light completely 
confuses it, so that, until sunset, it is never seen, 
unless when one comes by accident upon its resting- 
place, where it sits sleeping on some log or low- 
branch, from which it will only fly a very short dis- 
tance if disturbed, alighting again as soon as possi- 
ble, and dozing off forthwith. They used to come 
in June, and enliven the evenings till September, 
when they left us again for the south. Some peo- 
ple used to think it fine sport to shoot birds so sw^ift 
of flight ; but, somehow, I could never bring my- 
self to touch creatures that spoke my own lan- 
guage, however imperfectly. 

Immediately behind our lot was one which often 
struck me as very desolate-looking when I had to 
p-o to it to brincp home the cows at night. A field 
had been cleared, and a house built, but both field 
and house were deserted : long swamp grass grew 
thick in the hollows ; nettles, and roses, and bushes 
of all kinds, climbed u]5, outside and in ; the roof 
was gone, and only the four walls were left. I 
never learned more than the name of the person who 
had expended so much labor on the place, and then 
abandoned it. But there were other spots just like 
it all over the bush ; spots where settlers had begun 
with high hopes ; had worked hard for a time, 
uutil they lost heart, or had been stopped by some 



American Inquisitiveness. 345 

insurmountable obstacle, and bad deserted tbe 
bome tbey bad once been so proud of. One case I 
knew was caused by a toucbing incident of busb- 
bfe. A young, bearty man, bad gone out in tbe 
morning to chop at his clearing, but bad not re- 
turned at dinner, and was found by liis wife, when 
she went to look for him, lying on his back, dead, 
with a tree be bad felled resting on bis breast. It 
had slipped back, perhaps, off the stump in falling, 
and had crushed him beneath it. What agony 
such an accident in such circumstances must have 
caused tbe sufferer ! The poor fellow's wife could 
io nothing even towards extricating her husband's 
jody, but bad to leave it there till the neighbors 
>sme, and chopped the tree in two, so that it could 
be got away. No wonder she " sold out," and left 
jhe scene of so great a calamity. 

Every one has heard of tbe inquisitiveness of 
Ootli ScAiohmen and Americans. I allude more 
particularly to those of tbe humbler rank. I have 
often laughed at tbe examples we met within our 
intercourse, not only with these races, but with the 
3ess pclisbed of others, also, in Canada. I was 
f'oing down to Detroit on tbe little steamer which 
sised to lun between the town and Lake Huron — 
& steamer so ^li.all that it was currently reported 
among tlie boys, ^\iz-t one very stout lady in the 
toNfrisi. o bad mrue it lurch when she went on 
boaxd and had \^'o^ on the upper deck to look 
round. '^bo httb \,nerican village on tbe oppo- 



^46 American Inquisitiveness. 

site side was " called at," and left, in a very few 
minutes, and we Avere off again past the low shores 
of the river. A little pug-nosed man, in a white 
hat and white linen jacket, was the only one up 
beside me ; and it was not in his nature, evidently, 
that we should be long- without talkino;. " Fine 
captain on this here boat ? " said he. I agreed 
with him off hand ; that is, I took it for granted he 
was so. "Yes, he's the likeliest captain I've seen 
since I left Ohio. How plain you see whar the 
boat run — look ! Well, we're leaving County- 
seat right straight, I guess. Whar you born ? " 
" Where do you think ? " I answered. " Either 
Ireland or Scotland, anyhow." " No. You'' re 
Irish, at any rate, I suppose ? " — I stimck in. 
"No, sir — no, sirree — I'm Yankee born, and 
bred in Yankee town, and my parents afore me. 
you travelling altogether ? " I asked him what 
he meant, for I really didn't understand this ques- 
tion. " Why, travelling for a living — what do 
you sell ? " On my telling him he was wrong for 
once, he seemed a little confounded ; but presently 
recovered, and drew a bottle out of his breast- 
pocket, adding, as he did so — " Will you take 
some bitters ? " I thanked him, and said, I was 
"temperance." "You don't drink none, then? 
Well, I do ; " on which he suited the action to 
the word, putting the bottle back in its place 
again, after duly wiping his lips on his cuff. But 
his questions were not done yet. " Whar you 



An Election Agent. 347 

live ? " I told him. " Married man ? " I said I 
»iad not the happiness of being so. " How long 
since you came from England ? " — I answered. 
" You remember when you came ? " I said I 
hoped I did, else my faculty must be failing. " I 
guess you were pretty long on the waters ? " But 
I was getting tired of his impudence, and so gave 
him a laconic answer, and dived into the cabin out 
of his way. 

I was very much amused at a rencontre between 
the " captain," who seemed a really respectable 
man, and another of the passengers, who, it appear- 
ed, had come on board without having money to pay 
his ikre. The offender was dressed in an unbleach- 
ed linen blouse, with " dandy " trowsers, wide across 
the body, and tapering to the feet, with worn straps 
of the same material ; old boots of a fashionable make, 
an open waistcoat, and an immensity of dirty- white 
shirt-breast ; a straw hat, with a long green and 
lilac ribbon round it. A cigar in his mouth, a mock 
ring on his finger, and a very bloodshot eye, com- 
pleted the picture. It seemed he was a subordinate 
electioneering agent, sent round to make stump 
speeches for his party, and, generally, to influence 
votes ; and the trouble with the captain evidently 
rose from his wishing to have his fare charged to 
the committee who sent him out, rather than 
pay it himself. The captain certainly gave him 
no quarter. " He's a low, drunken watchmaker," 
said he, turning to me ; " I saw him last night 



848 An Election Agent. 

spouting away for General Cass on the steps of 
tlie church at Huron. The fellow wants to get 
off without paying — I suppose we'll have to let 
him." And he did. He got through to the jour- 
ney's end. 



A Journey to Niagara, 349 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A journey to Niagara. — River St. Clair. — Detroit. — A slave's 
escape. — An American Steamer. — Description of the Falls of 
Niagaia. — Fearful catastrophe. 

n'^HE country on the St. Clair, though beautifitl 
J- from the presence of the river, was, in itself, 
flat and tame enough. All Canada West, indeed, 
is remarkably level. The ridge of limestone hills 
which runs across from the State of New York at 
Niagara, and stretches to the north, is the only 
elevation greater than the round swells, which, in 
some parts, make the landscape look like a succes- 
sion of broad black waves. The borders of the St. 
Clair itself were higher than the land immediately 
behind them, so that a belt of swamp ran parallel 
with the stream, rich reaches of black soil rising 
behind it through township after township. The 
list of natural sights in such a part was not great, 
though the charms of the few there were, were un- 
fading. There was the river itself, and there was 
the vast leafy ocean of tree-tops, with the great 
aisles with innumerable pillars stretching away un 
derneath like some vast cathedral of nature ; btit 
these were common to all the country. The one 

30 



odO Detroit. 

wonder of the land was at a distance. It was Niagara. 
How we longed to see it ! But it fvas some years 
before any of us could, and there was no opportunity 
of going together. I had to set out by myself. It 
was in the month of September, just before the 
leaves bepan to turn. The Aveather was glorious — 
not too warm, and as bright as in Italy. I started 
in the little steamer for Detroit, passing the Indian 
settlement at Walpole Island, the broad flats cov- 
ered w^ith coarse grass, toward the entrance of 
Lake St. Clair, and at last, threading the lake itself, 
through the channel marked out across its shallow 
and muddy breadth, by long lines of poles, like 
telegraphs on each side of a street. Detroit was 
the London of all the folks on the river. They 
bought every thing they wanted there, it being easy 
of access, and its size offerino; a larger choice than 
could be obtained elsewhere. It is a great and 
growing place ; though, in the lifetime of a person 
still living — General Cass — it was only the little 
French village which it had been for a hundred 
years before. Taking the steamer to Buffalo, 
which started in an hour or two after I got to 
Detroit, I was once more on my way as the after- 
noon was drawing to a close. We were to call at 
various British ports, so that I had a chance of 
seeing different parts of the province that I had not 
ret visited. The first step in our voyage was to 
cross to Sandwich,, the village on the Canadian 
shore, opposite Detroit, from which it is less than a 



A Slave's Escape. 351 

mile distant. I was glad to see a spot so sacred to 
liberty — for Sandwich is the great point which the 
fiigitive slaves, from every part of the Union, eager- 
ly attempt to reach. I felt proud of my country 
at the thought that it was no vain boast, but a 
glorious truth, that slaves could not breathe in 
England, nor on British soil ; that the first touch 
of it by the foot of the bondsman broke his fetters 
and made him free forever. I was so full of the 
thought, that when we were once more under 
weigh it naturally became the subject of conversa- 
tion with an intelligent fellow-traveller, who had 
come on board at Sandwich. " 1 was standing at 
my door," said he, " a week or two ago, when I 
saw a skiff with a man in it, rowing, in hot haste, 
to our side. How the oars flashed — how his back 
bent to them — how he pulled ! It was soon evi- 
dent what was his object. As he came near, I saw 
he was a negro. Though no one was pursuing, he 
could not take it easy, and, at last, with a great 
bend, he swept up to the bank, pulled up the skiff, 
and ran up to the road, leaping, throwing up his hat 
in the air, shouting, singing, laughing — in short, 
fairly beside himself with excitement. ' I'm free ! 
I'm free ! — no more slave ! ' was the burden of his 
loud rejoicing, and it was long before he calmed 
down enough for any one to ask him his story. He 
had come all the way up the Mississippi from 
Arkansas, travelling by night, lying in the wooas 
by (lay, living on corn pulled from the fields, or on 



8?2 A 8laveh Escape, 

poultry he could catcli round farm-houses or negro 
quarters ; sometimes eating them raw, lest the smoke 
of his fire should discover him. At last he reached 
Illinois, a free State, after long weeks of travel ; but 
here his worst troubles began. Not being able to 
give a very clear account of himself, they put him 
in jail as a ' fiigitive.' But he gave a wrong name 
instead of his own, and a wrong State instead of 
that from wliich he had come. He told them, in 
fact, he had come from Maryland, which was at the 
very opposite side of the Union from Arkansas, and 
was kept in jail for a whole year, while they were 
advertising him, to try to get some owner to claim 
him, and they let him off only when none appeared 
in the whole twelvemonths. This ordeal passed, he 
gradually made his way to Detroit, and now, after 
running such a terrible gauntlet, he had risen from 
a mere chattel to be a man ! " Seeing the interest 
I took in the incident, he went on to tell me others 
equally exciting. One which I remember, was the 
rescue of a slave from some officers who had discov- 
ered him in one of the frontier towns of the States, 
and were taking him, bound like a sheep, to Buffalo, 
to carry him off" to his master in the South. Indig- 
nant at such treatment of a fellow-man, a young- 
Englishman, who has since been a member of the 
Canadian Parliament, and was then on the boat 
with him, determined, if possible, to cheat the men- 
stealers of their prey. Breaking his design to the 
colored cook, and through him getting the secret 



An American Steamer. 853 

aid of all the other colored men on the boat, he 
waited till they reached Bnt^'alo, some of the con- 
federates having previously told the poor slaves the 
scheme that was afoot. As the hoat o-ot alon^rside 
the wharf, seizing a moment when his guards had 
left him, the gallant young fellow efifectually severed 
the rope that bound the slave, and, telling him to 
follow him instantly, dashed over the gangway to 
the wharf, and leaped into a skiflp which was lying 
at hand, with oars in it ready, the negro following 
at his heels in a moment ; then, pushing off, he 
struck out into the lake, and reached Canada safely 
with his living triumph. The story made a thrill 
run through me. It was a brave deed daringly 
done. The risk was great, but the object was noble, 
and he must have had a line spirit who braved the 
one to accomplish the other. 

The steamer itself was very different from those 
with which I had been familiar in England. In- 
stead of cabins entirely below the deck, the body 
of the ship was reserved for a dining-room, sur- 
rounded by berths, and one portion of it covered in 
for cargo ; the ladies' cabin was raised on the back 
part of the main deck, with a walk all round it ; 
then came an open space with sofas, which was like 
a hall or lobby for receiving passengers or letting 
them out. Next to this, at the sides, Avas a lung 
set of offices, facing the engine-room in the centre, 
and reaching beyond the paddle-boxes, both the 
Bide and central structures being continued for some 

30* 



Z^A An American Steamer. 

diiitaiice, to make places for the cook's galley, foi 
a bar lor selling spirits and cigars, for a barber's 
shop, and for I know not what other conveniences. 
Covering in all these, an upper deck stretched the 
wliole length of the ship, and on this rose the great 
cabin, a long room, provided with sofas, mirrors, 
carpets, a piano, and every detail of a huge draw- 
ing-room, — innumerable doors at each side open- 
ing into sleeping places for the gentlemen travellers. 
It was a fine sight, with its profusion of gilding and 
white paint on the walls and ceiling, its paintings 
on panels at regular intervals all round, its showy 
furniture, and its company of both sexes. You 
could get on the top even of this cabin, if you liked, 
or, if you thought you were high enough, might go 
out on the open space at each end, where seats in 
abundance awaited occupants. The whole struc- 
ture, seen from the wharf when it stopped at any 
place, was more like a floating house than a ship, 
and seemed very strange to me at first, with its two 
stories above the deck, and its innumerable doors 
and windows, and its dazzling white color from stem 
to stern. Such vessels may do well enough for 
calm weather or for rivers, but they are far from 
safe in a storm at any distance from land. The 
wind catches them so fiercely on their great high 
works that they are like to ca^^size, when a low-built 
ship would be in no danger. Indeed, we had a 
proof of this on coming out of Bufi'alo to cross to 
Chippewa ; for as the wind had blown during the 



An American Steamer, 855 

night while we were ashore, we Tound, when we 
started again next morning, that the shallow water 
of that part of the lake was pretty rough, and our 
way leading us almost into the trough of the 
waves, the boat swayed so much to each side 
alternately, that the captain got all the passengers 
gathered in a body, and made them run from the 
low to the high side by turns, to keep it from 
swamping. The water was actually coming in on 
the main deck at every roll. It was very disagree- 
able to have such a tumbling about, but this ugly 
state of things did not last long. The smooth 
water of the Niagara was soon reached, and we 
were gliding down to within about three miles or 
so of the Falls, as quietly and carelessly as if no 
such awful gulf were so near. I could not help 
thinking how terrible it would have been had any 
accident injured our machinery in such a position. 
There certainly were no sails on the boat, and I 
greatly question if there was an anchor, the short 
distance of her trips making one generally unnec- 
essary. At last we got safely into Chippewa 
Creek, and all chance of danger had passed away. 

Long before reaching this haven of refuge, a 
white mist, steadily rising, and disappearing high 
in the air, had marked with unmistakable certainty 
our near approach to the grand spectacle I had 
come to see. Never for a moment still, it had 
risen and sunk, grown broader and lighter, melted 
into one great cloud, or broken into waves of white 



S56 Tlie Falls of Niagara. 

vapor, from tlie time I liad first seen it, and had 
made me restless till I was safely on shore. The 
sensation was painful — a kind of instinct of dan- 
ger, and an uneasiness till it was past. Having 
nothing to detain me, I determined to lose no 
time in getting to the Falls themselves ; and there- 
fore, leaving my portmanteau to be sent on after 
me, I set out for them on foot. There is a beauti- 
ful broad road to the spot, and it was in excellent 
order, as the fall rains had not yet commenced, so 
that I jogged on merrily, and was soon at my jour- 
ney's end at Drummondville, the village near the 
Falls, on the Canadian side, where I resolved to 
stay for some days. One of the finest views of the 
great wonder burst upon my sight during this walk. 
On a sudden, at a turn of the road, an opening in 
the trees showed me the Falls from behind, in the 
very bend downwards to the gulf beneath. The 
awful alidino; of the vast mass of waters into an 
abyss which, from that position, only showed its 
presence without revealing its depth, filled me with 
indescribable awe. Over the edge, whither, I as 
yet knew not, were descending, in unbroken vol- 
ume, millions of tons of water. Above, rose the 
ever-changing clouds of vapor, like the smoke from 
a vast altar, and beliind, looking up the liver, were 
the struggling weaves of the rapids, covering the 
whole breadth of the stream with bars of restless 
white. After seeing Niagara from every other point 
of view, I think this is one of the finest. The leap 



The Falls of Niagara. 357 

into the liicllen depths has in it something awfu 
beyond any power of description. 

You may be sure I did full justice to the oppor- 
tunities my visit afforded me, and kept afoot, day 
after day, with praiseworthy diligence. My first 
walk to the Falls, from the village, brought me, 
through a break in a sandy bank, to a spot from 
which nothing could be seen at the bottom of a 
gorge but the white foam of the American Fall. 
The trees filled each side of the descent, arching 
overhead, and made the vista even more beautiful 
than the wild outline of the bank itself would have 
been ; the water, like sparkling snow, drifting in 
long tongues down the face of the hidden rocks, 
filling up the whole view beyond. It depended on 
the position of the sun whether the picture were 
one of dazzling white or more or less dulled ; but 
at all times the falling water, broken into spray, and 
partially blown back as it descended, by the force 
of the air, was one of surpassing beauty. The 
Amrvican Fall, though nine hundred feet wide, has 
onl^ a small part of the current passing over it, and 
it is this shallowness that makes it break ii>to foam 
at the moment of its descent. Emerging on the 
road at the edge of the river, the great Horse-shoe 
was at once before me on my right hand. No 
wonder the Indians called it " Ni-wa-gay-rah " — 
ihe " Thunder of Waters." A mass of a hundred 
millions of tons of water, falling a depth of a hun- 
dred and fifty feet in the course of a single hour. 



358 Tlie Falls of Niagara. 

while jou stand b}^, may well give such a sound as 
overwhelms the listener's sense of hearino;. It is 
no use attempting to picture the scene. It was 
some time before I could go near the edge, but at 
last, when my head was less dizzy, I went out on the 
projecting point called the Table Rock, which has, 
however, long since fallen into the abyss, and there, 
on a mere ledge, from which all beneath had been 
eaten away by the spray, I could let the spectacle 
gradually fill my mind. You cannot see Niag- 
ara at once ; it takes day after day to realize its 
vastness. I was astonished at the slow unbroken 
fall of the water. So vast is the qiiantity hanging 
in the air at any one moment, that it moves down 
in a great green sheet, with a slow, awful descent. 
The patches of white formed in spots here and 
there showed how majestically it goes down to the 
abyss. Think of such a launching of a great river, 
two thousand feet in breadth, over a sudden prec* 
pice — the smooth flow above — the green crest 
— the massy solidity of the descent — and then the 
impenetrable clouds of watery spray that hide the 
bottom. Yet at tlie edge it was so shallow that 
one might have waded some steps into it without 
apparent danger. Indeed, I noticed men one day 
dannning it back some feet, in a vain attempt to 
get out the body of a poor man who had leaped 
over. They hoped it would be found jammed 
among the rocks at the bottom, within reach, if 
this side water were forced back. But if it ever 



The Falls of Niagara. 859 

had been, it was since washed away, and no efforts 
could recover it. Descending a spiral staircase 
close to the Table Rock, I had another view from 
below ; and what words can convey the impression 
of the deep, trembling boom of the waters, as you 
caught it thus confined in the abyss ? It was ter- 
rible to look into the cauldron, smoking, heaving, 
foaming, rushing, as far as the eye could see 
through the mist. A slope of fragments from 
the side of the rock offered a slippery path iip to 
the thick curtain of the Falls, and you could even 
go behind it if you chose. But I had not nerve 
enough to do so, though several parties ventured in, 
after having put on oilskin clothes ; guides, who 
live in part by the occupation, leading them on 
their way. Overhead, Table Rock reached far out, 
awaiting its fall, which I felt sure could not be long 
delayed. In crossing it I noticed a broad crack, 
which each successive year would, of course, deepen. 
On every ledge, up to tlie top of the precipice, grass 
and flowers, nourished by the incessant spray, 
relieved the bareness, and in the middle of the 
river, dividing the Horse-shoe Fall from the Amer- 
ican, the trees on Goat Island dimly showed them- 
selves through the ascending smoke. The vast 
sweep of waters bending round the Horse-shoe for 
more than the third of a mile, was hemmed in at 
the further side by masses of rock, the lower end 
of Goat Island projecting roughly fi'om the torrents 
at each side, so as to hide part of the more distant 



S60 Tlie Falls of Niagara. 

one from my sight. A liill of fragments from it? 
face lay heaped up in the centre, and more thinly 
scattered at the further side. But I could pay 
httle attention to details, with the huge cauldron 
within a few yards of me, into which the great 
green walls of water were being every moment pre- 
cipitated, and which, broken into sheets of foam, 
liissed, and lashed, and raged, and boiled, in wild 
uproar, as far as my eye could reach. The con- 
trast between the solemn calmness of the great sheet 
of iireen ever o-lidino; down in the centre, with the 
curtain of snowy wreaths at its edges, where the 
stream above, from its shallowness, broke into white 
crystalline rain in the moment of its first descent, 
and the tossing, smoking storm beneath, was over- 
powering, and — accompanied as it ever was with 
the stunnino;, deafenino- noise of three thousand six 
liundred millions of cubic feet of water falling in an 
hour, from so great a height — filled my mind 
with a sense of the awful majesty and power of 
God such as I scarcely remember to have felt else- 
where. 

Being anxious to cross to the American side, 1 
walked down the side of the river, after having 
ascended to the top of the bank, and, at last, about 
a mile below, found a road running down slowly to 
the level of the water, the slope having brought me 
back to within a comparatively short distance of the 
Fall. It would have been impossible to have 
reached this point by keeping alcng below, the 



TJie Falls of Niagara. 361 

broken heaps of rock making the way impractical 
ole. The river at the place I had now gained is, 
however, so wonderfully calm, that a ferry-boat plies 
between the British and American shores, and by 
this I crossed. Some ladies who were in it seemed, 
at first, in some measure alarmed by the heaving of 
the water, but as the surface was unbroken, and 
reflection showed that it must be safe, they soon 
resigned themselves to the charms of the view 
around. Forthwith, the boat was in the centre of 
a vast semicircle of descending floods, more than 
three thousand feet in their sweep, and on the edge 
of the foaming sheets of the unfi»thomable gmlf, 
into which they were thundering down. The 
grand clifl's on each side, the brown rocks of Goat 
Island in the midst, the fringe of huge trees in the 
distance on every hand, the clouds of ppray which 
rose in thick smoke from the tormented waters — 
the whole pierced and lighted up by the rays of a 
glorious sun, made a scene of surpassing beauty. 
I could not, however, take my eyes for more than 
a moment from the overwhelmino; p;randeur of the 
main feature in the picture. Still, down, in their 
awful, dense, stupendous floods, came the waters, 
gathered from the inland seas of a continent, pour- 
ino; as if another deluge were about to overwhelm 
all things. But, high over them, in the ever-ris- 
ing clouds of vapor, stretched a great rainbow, as 
if to remind us of the solemn pledge given of old, 
and the very edges of the mist glittered, as eacb 

31 



362 The Falls jf Niagara. 

beat of the oar sent us on, with a succession of pris- 
matic colors, the broken fragments of others which 
shone for a moment and then passed away. 

The ascent at the American side was accom- 
plished by a contrivance which I think must be 
almost unique. A strong wooden railroad has been 
laid, at a most perilous slope, from the bottom to 
the top of the cliff, and a conveyance which is sim- 
ply three huge wooden steps, on wheels, furnishes 
the means of ascent, a wheel at the tojD driven by 
water, twisting it up, by a cable passed round a 
windlass. I could not help shuddering at the con- 
sequence of any accident tliat miglit occur, from so 
precarious an arrangment. Goat Island is one of 
the great attractions on this farther side, and is 
reached by a bridge which makes one half forget 
the wildness of the gulf across Avliich it is stretched. 
There is a house on the island in which I found 
refreshments and Indian curiosities for sale, but as 
I was more interested in the Falls for the moment 
than in any thing else, I pushed on by a path which 
turned to the rig;ht and led straight to them. A 
small island on the very edge of the precipice, and 
connected by a frail bridge with Goat Island, lay 
on my road. It was the scene of a very affecting 
accident in 1849. A gentleman from Buffalo had 
visited it along with his family, and a y«ung man 
of the name of Addington, and after looking over it, 
the party were about to leave the spot, when Ad- 
dington, in his thoughtless spirits, suddenly took up 



The Falls of Niagara. 363 

one of the little children, a girl, in his arms, and 
held her over the edge of the bank, telling her that 
he was going to throw her in. The poor child, ter- 
rified, unfortunately made a twist, and rolled out of 
his hands into the stream. Poor Addington, in a 
moment, with a loud cry of horror, sprang in to 
save her, but both, almost before the others at their 
side knew that any thing of so fearful a kind had 
happened, were swept into the abyss beneath. 
Beyond Goat Island, a singularly daring structure 
has enabled visitors to cross to some scattered 
masses of rock on the very brink of the great fall. 
A tower has been erected on them, and a slight 
bridge, which is always wet with the spray, has 
been stretched across to it. From this point tlie 
whole extent of the falls is before you. It was an 
awful sio-ht to look down on the rushino; terrors at 
my feet, I felt confused, overwhelmed, and almost 
stunned. Once after, on another visit, I clambered 
out to it over the mounds of ice in winter, but I 
hardly know that the impression was deeper then. 

There are accidents every now and then at 
Niagara, but it is only wonderful that, amidst such 
dangers, there are no more. The truth is, that 
here, as well as elsewhere, familiarity breeds con- 
tempt. Thus, in 1854, a man ventured, with his 
son, to cross the rapids above the falls, in a skiif, to 
save some property which happened to be on a flat- 
bottomed " scow," which had broken from its moor- 



364 Tlie Falls of Niagara. 

ings, and stuck fast at some distance above Goat 
Island. The two shot out into the broken water, 
and were carried with terrible swiftness down 
toward the " scow," into which the son sprang as 
they shot past, fastening the skiff to it as he did so. 
Having taken off the goods they wished to save, 
the skiff, with both on board, was once more 
pushed off, and flew like an arrow on the foaming 
water, toward the Three Sisters — the name of 
some rocks above Goat Island. The fate of the 
two men seemed to be sealed, for they were near- 
ing the centre Fall, and, to go over it, would be 
instant death. But they managed, when on its 
very verge, to push into an eddy, and reach the 
second Sister. On this, they landed, and having 
dracrsed ashore the skiff, carried it to the foot of the 
island, a proof that the " property " they wished 
to rescue could not have weighed very much. 
There, they once more launched it, and making a 
bold sweep down the rapids, their oars going with 
their utmost strength, they succeeded in reaching 
the shore of Goat Island in safety, though it seems 
to me as if, after thus tempting their fate, they 
haidly deserved to do so. 

I was very much struck by the appearance of the 
rapids above the Falls, on a visit I made to an 
island some distance up the river, in the very mid- 
dle of them. A fine broad bridge, built by the 
owner of the island, and of the neighboring shore, 



The Falls of Niagara. 865 

enables you to reach it with ease. It hes about 
half-way between Chippewa and the Falls, on the 
British side. The whole surface of the great 
stream is broken into a long cascade, each leap of 
which is made with more swiftness than the one 
before. It is a wild, tumultuovis scene, and forms 
a fit 2:)relude to the spectacle to which it leads. 
Accidents occasionally happen here also. Just 
before I visited it, a little child had strayed from a 
party with whom she was, and must have fallen 
into the stream, as she was never seen again after 
V-ing missed. 

Some years ago, a number of people in the 
neighborhood formed the strange wish to see a boat, 
laden with a variety of animals, go down these 
rapids and over the Falls. It was a cruel and idle 
curiosity which could dictate such a thought, but 
they managed to get money enough to purchase a 
bear and some other animals, which were duly 
launched, unpiloted, from the shore near Chippewa. 
From whatever instinctive sense of danger it would 
be impossil)le to say, the creatures appeared very 
soon to be alarmed. The bear jumped overboard 
on seeing the mist of the Falls, as the people on the 
spot say, and by great efforts, managed to swim 
across so far that he was carried down to Goat 
Island. The other animals likewise tried to escape, 
but in vain. The only living creatures that re- 
mained in the boat were some geese, which could 
31* 



366 The Falls of Niagara. 

not have escaped if they had wished, their wings 
having been cut short. They went over, and sev- 
eral were killed at once, though, curiously enough, 
some managed, by fluttering, to get beyond tlie 
crushing blow of the descending water, and reached 
the shore in safety. 



2%e Suspension-Bridge at Niagara. 367 



CHAPTER XXfll. 

The suspension-bridge at Niagara. — The whirlpool. — The battle 
of Luudy's Lane. — Brock's monument. — A soldier nearly 
drowned. 

TWO miles below the Falls an attraction pre- 
sents itself now, that was not in existence when I 
first visited them, though I have seen it often 
since : the Great Suspension Bridge over the 
chasm throucrh which the river flows below. Made 
entirely of iron wire, twisted into ropes and cables 
of all sizes, the largest measuring ten inches 
throvigh, and containing about four thousand miles 
of wire, it stretches, in a road twenty-four feet in 
breadth, in two stories, the under one for foot-pas- 
sengers and carriages, the other, twenty-eight feet 
above it, for a steady stream of railway trains, at the 
height of two hundred and fifty feet over the deep 
rushing waters, for eight hundred feet, from the 
Canadian to the American shore. Two huge 
towers, rising nearly ninety feet on the American 
sids, and nearly eighty on the British, bear up the 
vast fabric, which is firmly anchored in solid ma- 
sonry built into the ground beyond. It is hard to 
believe, what is nevertheless the fact, that the airv 



368 Tlie Wldrlpool. 

and elegant thing thus hanging ovei' the gulf, is by 
no means so light as it looks, but weighs fully eight 
hundi'ed tons. When you step on it and feel it 
tremble beneath any passing wagon, the thought of 
trains going over it seems like sending them to cer- 
tain destruction. Yet they do go, hour after hour, 
and have done so safely for years, the only precau- 
tion observed being to creep along at the slowest 
Avalk. It is open at the sides — that is, you can see 
up and down the river, and over into the awful 
abyss, but my head is not steady enough to stand 
looking into such a depth. How Blondin could 
pass over on his rope has always been incomprehen- 
sible to me ; the bridge itself was not broad enough 
for my nerves. Yet he performed his wonderful 
feat again and again, close by, and each time Avith 
accumulated difficulties, until, when the Prince of 
Wales visited Niagara, he actually carried over a 
man on his back from the Canadian to the Ameri- 
can side, and came back on stilts a yard high, play 
ing all kinds of antics on the way. 

Every one has heard of the whirlpool at the Falls, 
and most of the visitors go down the three miles to 
it. To be like others, I also strolled down, but I 
was greatly disappointed. I had formed in my 
mind a very highly-wrought picture of a terrible 
roaring vortex, flying round in foam, at the rate of 
a great many miles an hour ; but instead, I found 
a turn in the channel, which they told me was the 
whirlpool ; though, to my notion, it needed the 



Tlie Whirlpool. 869 

name to be written over it to enable one to kno'W 
wliat it was, like the badly-painted sign, on which 
the artist informed the passer-by, in large letters, 
" This is a horse." I dare say it would have 
whirled quite enough for my taste had I been in it, 
but from the brow of the ehasin it seems to take 
things very leisurely indeed, as if it were treacle, 
rather than water. There are stories about the 
strength of the current, however, that shows it to 
be greater than is apparent from a little distance. 
A deserter, some years ago, tried to get over below 
the Falls to the American side on no better con- 
veyance than a huge plank. But the stream w as 
stronger than he had supposed ; and in spite of all 
his efforts, he was forced down to this circling hor- 
ror, which speedily sent him and his plank round 
and round in gradually contracting whirls, until, 
after a time, they reached the centre. There was 
no pushing out, and the poor wretch was kept 
revolving, with each end of his support sunk in the 
vortex by turns, requiring him to crawl backwards 
and forwards unceasingly for more than a day, 
before means were found to bring him to land. 
Somebody said at the time that he would surely 
become an expert circumnavigator after such a 
training ; but his miraculous escape has most proba- 
bly not induced many others to make the same 
venturesome voyage. 

The village of Drummondville, a little back from 
the Falls, on the British side, is memorable as the 



370 A Sad Mistake. 

scene of the Battle of Lundy's Lane, in the war of 
1812-1814. I was fortunate enough to meet with 
an intelHgent man, who, when a boy, had seen the 
battle from a distance ; and he went with me over 
the ground. In passing through a garden, on which 
a fine crop of Indian corn was waving, he stopped 
to tell me that on the evening after the battle, he 
saw a number of soldiers come to this spot, which 
was then an open field, and commence digging a 
great pit. Curious to know all they were doing, 
he went up and stood beside them, and found it 
was a grave for a number of poor fellows who had 
been shot by mistake in the darkness of the night 
before. An aide-de-camp had been sent ofi" in hot 
haste down to Queenston from the battle, to order 
up reinforcements as quickly as possible, and had 
been obeyed so promptly that our forces on the 
field could not believe they had come when they 
heard them marching up the hill, but supposing 
they must be Americans, fired a volley of both can- 
non and musketry into their ranks. There they lie 
now, without any memorial, in a private garden, 
which is dug up every year, and replanted over 
their bones, as if there were no such wreck of brave 
hearts sleeping below. In the churchyard there 
were a number of tablets of wood, instead of stone, 
marking the graves of ofiicers slain in the conflict. 
I picked up more than one which had rotted off at 
the ground, and were lying wherever the wind had 
carried them. Peach-trees, laden with fruit, hung 



The Seneca Indians, 371 

over and iwnidst the graves, and sheep were nibbhng 
the grass But what seemed the most vivid remi- 
niscence < ■( the strife was a wooden house, to which 
my guide led me, the sides and ends of which were 
perforated with a great number of holes made on 
the day by musket-balls ; a larger hole here and 
there, showing where a cannon had also sent its 
missile through it. I was surprised to see it inhab- 
ited, with so many apei'tures unstopped outside ; 
but perhaps it was plastered within. 

Every part of the Niagara frontier has, indeed, 
its own story of war and death. On the way to 
Queenston I passed a gloomy chasm, into which 
the waters of a small stream, called the Bloody Run, 
fall, on their course to the river. It got its name 
from an incident in the old French war, very 
characteristic of the times and the country. A 
detachment of British troops was marching up the 
banks of the Niagara with a convoy of wagons, and 
had reached this point, when a band of Seneca 
Indiaus, in the service of the French, leaped out 
from the woods immediately over the precipice, and 
uttering from all sides their terrible war-whoop, 
rushed down, pouring in a deadly volley as they 
closed, and hurled them and all they had, soldiers, 
wagons, horses, and drivers, over the cliffs into the 
abyss below, Avhere they were dashed to pieces on 
the rocks. It was the work ahnrst of a moment; 
they were gone before they could collect themselves 
together, or realize theu* position. The little strearc 



372 Brock'' s Monument. 

was red witli tlieir blood, and out of the whole num 
ber only two escaped — the one a soldier, who, as 
by miracle, got back, under cover of night, to Fort 
Niagara, at the edge of Lake Ontario ; the other a 
gentleman, who spurred his horse through the horde 
of savages on the first moment of the alarm, and 
got off in safety. My attention was drawn, as I 
got further on, to the monument of General Brock, 
killed at the battle of Queenston, in 1812, which 
stands near the village of that name, on a fine height 
close to the edge of the river. It is a beautiful 
object when viewed from a distance, and no less so 
on a near approach, and is, I think, as yet, the only 
public monument in the western province. I had 
often heard it spoken of with admiration before I 
saw it, and could easily understand why it was so. 
I could not but feel, that besides being a tribute to 
the memory of the illustrious dead, it served also to 
keep alive, through successive generations, an en- 
thusiastic feeling of patriotism and of a resolute de- 
votion to duty. 

Taking the steamer at Queenston, which is a 
small, lifeless place, I now struck out on the waters 
of Ontario, to see Toronto once more. As we en- 
tered the lake, I was amused by the remark of an 
Irish lad, evidently fresh from his native island. 
Leaning close by me over the side of the vessel, he 
suddenly turned round from a deep mu.sing, in 
which he had been absorbed, and broke out — 
" Och, sir ! what a dale o' fine land thim lakes 



A Soldier nearly Drowned. 373 

cover ! " Such a tliouglit, in a country where z. 
boundless wilderness stretches so closely in one un- 
broken line, seemed inexpressibly ludicrous ; not to 
speak of the uselessness of all the land that was " un- 
covered," if there had been no lakes to facilitate 
passage from one point to another. As we left 
the wharf at the town of Niagara, which stands at 
the mouth of the river, on the lake, a great stir 
was caused for a short time by a soldier of the 
Rifles having been tumbled into the water, and 
nearly drowned, through the stupidity of a poor 
Connaughman who was in charge of the plank by 
which those who were leaving the steamer, before 
she started, were to reach the shore. He was in 
such a breathless hurry and wild excitement, that 
he would hardly leave it in its place while the vis- 
itors were crowding out ; once and again he had 
made a snatch at it, only to have some one put 
his foot on it, and run off. At last, the soldier 
came, but just as he made a step on it, the fellow, 
who had his face to the shore, and saw nothing 
except the crowd, gave it a pull, and down went 
the man into the water, cutting his chin badly in 
falling. He evidently could not swim, and sank 
almost at once, but he came up to find ropes thrown 
out for him to cling to. But somehow he could 
not catch them, and he would, in another moment, 
Ivave gone down again. Luckily, however, some 
one had sense enough to thrust down a broad ladder, 
which was standing near, and up this he managed 

32 



374 A ColoneVs Kindness. 

to climb, we holding the top steady till he did so 
Every attention was instantly paid him ; and I dare 
say the mishap did him no harm beyond the ducking. 
In a few minutes he was ashore again ; and I was 
delighted to see the colonel, who happened to be 
present, give him his arm, and walk away with him, 
talking kindly to him as they went. 



The Canadian Lakes. 375 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Canadian lakes. — The exile's love of home. — The colored 
people in Canada. — Rice. — The Maid of the Mist. — Home-spun 
cloth. — A narrow road. — A grumbler. — New England emi- 
grants. — A potato pit. — The winter's wood. 

WHAT vast sheets of water the lakes of Can- 
ada are ! Beginning in the far north-\vest,v 
with Superior, nearly as large as all Scotland, we 
have Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, in suc- 
cession, each more like a sea than a lake. On 
crossing them, you have no land in sight any more 
than on the ocean ; and, like it, they have whole 
fleets on them, all through the season of navigation. 
They yield vast sums from their fisheries, and their 
waves wash shores as extensive as those of many 
kingdoms. It is striking how gigantic is the pro- 
portion of every thing in natui'e in the New World. 
Vast lakes and rivers, the wonderful Niagara, end- 
less forests, and boundless prairies — all these form 
a great contrast to the aspects of nature in Europe. 
The chain of lakes, altogether, stretclies over 
more than a thousand miles, with very short inter- 
vals between any of them, and none between some. 
Even Ontario, which is the smallest, is nine times 



376 Tlie Exile's Love of Home. 

as long, and fi'om twice to four times as broad, as 
the sea between Dover and Calais. I could not 
help thinking of the fact that there were men still 
living who remembered when the Indians had pos- 
session of nearly all the shore of Lake Ontario, and 
when only two or three of their wigwams stood on 
the site of the town to which I was then sailing. I 
found Toronto much increased since my first visit 
to it — its streets macadamized in some places, 
pavements of plank laid dovs n on the sides of sev- 
eral, the houses better, and the shops more attract- 
ive. When we first came, it was as muddy a 
place as could be imagined ; but a few years work 
wonders in a new country like Canada. There 
was now no fear of a lady losing her India-rubber 
overshoes in crossing the street, as one of my sisters 
had done on our first coming, nor were wagons to 
be seen stuck hard and fast in the very heart of the 
town. I found my married sister comfortably 
established, and spent a very pleasant time with her 
and her husband. There is, however, not much to 
see in Toronto even now, and still less at that time. 
It lies very low, near the lake, though the grovmd 
rises as it recedes from it. The neighborhood is 
rather uninteresting, to my taste, from the tame- 
ness of the scenery. It is an English town, how- 
ever, in its feelings and outward life, and that made 
it delightful. It is beautiful to see how true- 
hearted nearly every one becomes to his mother- 
country when he has left it. There has often 



Loyalty of the CarMdians. 37 Y 

seemed to me to be more real love of Britain out 
of it than in it, as if it needed to be contemplated 
from a distance, in order thoroughly to appreciate 
all its claims upon our love and respect. In Can- 
ada almost every one is a busy local politician, 
deeply immersed in party squabbles and manoeu- 
vres, and often separated by them from his neigh- 
bor. But let the magic name of " home " be men- 
tioned, and the remembrance of the once-familiar 
land causes every other thought to be forgotten. 
In the time of the rebellion in 1837, before we 
came out, it was found, that although multitudes 
had talked wildly enough while things were all 
quiet, the moment it was proposed to rise against 
England, the British born part of them, and many 
native Canadians as w^ell, at once went over to the 
old flag, to defend it, if necessary, with their lives. 
And when it seemed as if England needed help in 
the time of the war with Russia, Canada came for- 
ward in a moment, of her own accord, and raised 
a reo'iment to aid in fio-hting her battles, and serve 
her in any part of the world. Later still, when the 
Prince of Wales went over, they gave him such a 
reception as showed their loyalty most nobly. 
Through the wliole province it seemed as if the 
population were smitten with an universal enthusi- 
asm, and despaired of exhibiting it sufficiently. 
And but yesterday, when rumors of war rose once 
more, the whole people were kindled in a moment 
with a loyal zeal. 

32 * 



378 The Colored People. 

I was very much struck, on this trip, with the 
number of colored people who have found a refuge 
in Canada. In all the hotels, most of the waiters, 
and a large proportion of the cooks, seemed to be 
colored. They take to these employments natur- 
ally, and never appear to feel themselves in greater 
glory than when fussing about the table at meals, 
or wielding tlie basting-ladle in the kitchen. They 
very seldom turn to trades, and even their children, 
as they grow up, are not much more inclined to 
them. I used to think it was, perhaps, because, 
as slaves, they might not have learned trades, but 
this would not apply to those born in Canada, who 
might learn them if they liked. They become, 
instead, vvhitewashers, barbers, or waiters, and 
cooks, like their fathers before them. I was told, 
however, that they are a well-conducted set of peo- 
ple, rarely committing any crimes, and veiy tem- 
perate. They have places of worship of their own, 
and I was amused by a friend telling us, one night, 
how he had met their minister going home, carry- 
ing a piece of raw beef at his side by a string, and 
how, when he had one evening gone to their 
chapel, the official, a colored man, had told him 
that " the folks had tu'ned out raither lean in the 
mo'nin, and, 'sides, the wood's sho't — so I guess 
we sha'n't open tonight." Poor, simple creatures, 
it is, indeed, a grand thing that there is a home 
open lor them like Canada, where they can have 
the full enjoyment of liberty. Long may the red 



Samilton. 379 

cross of St. George wave an invitation to their per- 
secuted race to come and find a refuge under its 
shadow ! 

I went home again by way of Hamihon, to 
which I crossed in a steamer. The white houses, 
peeping through the woods, were a pretty sight at 
the places where we stopped, the larger ones stand- 
ing on all sides, detached, in the midst of pleasant 
grass and trees ; the others, in the villages, built 
with an easy variety of shape and size that could 
hardly be seen in an older covxntry. The tin spires 
of churches rose, every here and there, brightly 
through the trees, reminding one that the faith of 
his dear native land had not been forgotten, but 
was cherished as fondly in the lonely wilderness as 
it had been at home. Hamilton, the only town of 
Canada West, with a hill near it, gave me a day's 
pleasure in a visit to a friend, and a ramble over 
" the mountain," as they call the ridge behind it. 
The sight of streets built of stone, instead of wood 
or brick, was positively delightful, bringing one in 
mind of the stability of an older country. " Have 
you ever seen any of this ? " said my friend, wheu 
we were back in his room, and he handed me a 
grain different from any I had ever noticed before 
I said I had not. It was rice ; got from Rice Lak* 
Avhen he was down there lately. The lake lies a 
little north of Cobourg, which is seventy miles or 
so below Toronto. He was very much pleased 
with his trip. The road to it lies, after leaving 



880 Lake Rict. 

(.^'oboiiro;, throufili a fine farmino; country for some 
distance, and then you get on what tlie folks cali 
' the phains ' — great reaches of sandy soil, covered 
with low, scrubby oak buslies, thick with filberts. 
As you get to the lake, the view is really beautiful, 
while the leaves are out. The road stretches on 
through avenues of green, and, at last, when you 
get nearer, there are charming peeps of the water 
through a fringe of beautiful trees, and over and 
through a world of creepers, and vines, and bushes 
of all sorts. The rice grows only in the shallow 
borders of the lake, rising in beds along the shore, 
from the deep mud, in which it takes root. It looks 
curious to see grain in the middle of water. The 
Imlians have it left to them as a perquisite, and 
they come when it gets ripe, and gather it in their 
canoes, sailing along and bendiiip; down the ears 
over the edges of their frail vessels, and beating out 
the rice as they do so. They get a good deal of 
shooting as well as rice, for the ducks and wild fowl 
are as fond of the ears as themselves, and flock in 
great numbers to get a share of them. There are 
great beds along the shores of the Georgian Bay, 
on Lake Huron, as well as on Rice Lake, but there 
also it is left for the Indians. 

Of course I was full of my recent visit to the 
Falls, and dosed my friend with all the details 
which occurred to me. lie had noticed, like me, 
how the windows rattle unceasingly in the neigh- 
borhood, from the concussion of the air, and told 



Tlie ''Maid of the Mist:' 381 

me of a curious consequence of the dampness, from 
the minute powdery spray that floats far in every 
direction ; — that they could not keep a piano from 
warping and getting out of tune, even as far as a 
mile from the Falls, near the river's edo;e. The 
glorious sunrise I had seen from Drummondville 
came back again to my thoughts ; how, on rising 
early one morning, the great cloud at the Falls, and 
the long swathe of vapor that lay over the chasm 
for miles below, had been changed into gold by the 
light, and shone like the gates of heaven ; and I 
remembered how I had been struck with a great 
purple vine near the river's edge, which, after 
climbing a lofty elm that had been struck and with- 
ered by lightning, flung its arms, waving far, into 
the air. " Did you see the Maid of the Mist ? " he 
asked. Of course I had, and we talked of it; how 
th6 little steamer plies, many times a day, from the 
landing-places, close up to the Falls, going some- 
times so near that you stand on the bank, far above, 
in anxioiis excitement lest it should be sucked into 
the cauldron and perish at once. I have stood 
thus, wondering if the paddles would ever get her 
out of the white foam into which she had pressed, 
and it seemed as if, though they were doing their 
utmost, it was a terrible time before they gained 
their point. If any accident were to happen to the 
machinery, woe to those on board ! As it is, they 
get drenched, in spite of oil-skin dresses, and must 
be heartily glad when they reach firm footing once 
more. 



382 Sbmespun Cloth. 

I was sorry wlie^j I had to leave and turn my 
fiice once more toward home. As the stage drove 
on, the roads being still in their best condition, I 
had leisure to notice every thing. The quantity of 
homespun gray woollen cloth, worn by the farmei's 
and country people, was very much greater than I 
had seen it in previous years, and was in admirable 
keeping with the country around. The wives and 
daughters in the farm-houses had a good deal to do 
in its manufacture. The wool is taken to the mill 
to get cleaned, a certain weight being kept back 
from each lot in payment ; then the snowy-white 
fleece is twisted into rolls, and in that condition it 
is taken back by the owners to be spun into yarn 
at home. I like the hum of the spinning-wheel 
amazingly, and have often waited to look at 
some tidy girl, walking backwards and forwards at 
her task, at each approach sending off another hum, 
as she drives the wheel round once more. But the 
cloth is not made at home. The mill gets the yarn 
when finished, and weaves it into the homely use- 
ful fabric I saw everywhere around. At one 
place we had an awkward stoppage on a piece of 
narrow corduroy road. There happened to be a 
turn in it, so that the one end could not be seen 
from the other, and we had got on some distance, 
bumping dreadflilly from log to log, when a wagon 
made its appearance coming toward us. It could 
not pass and it could not turn, and there was water 
at both sides. What was to be done ? It was a 



A G-rumhling Scotchman. 38ii 

great question for the two drivers. Their tongues 
went at a great rate at each other for awhile, but, 
after a time, they cooled down enough to discuss the 
situation, as two statesmen would the threatened 
collision of empires. They finally solved the diffi- 
culty by unyoking the horses from the wagon, and 
pushing it back over the logs with infinite trouble, 
after taking out as much of the load as was neces- 
sary. Of course the passengers helped with right 
good-will, turning the wheels, and straining this 
way and that, till the road was clear, when we 
drove on once more. The bridge at Brantford, 
when we reached it, was broken down, "having 
remained so since the last spring floods, wlien it 
had been swept away by the ice and water together, 
and the coach had to get through the stream as 
well as it could. The horses behaved well, the 
vehicle itself slipped and bumped over and against 
the stones at the bottom ; but it got a cleaning that 
it very much needed, and neither it nor we took 
any harm. A great lumpish farmer, who travelled 
with me, helped to pass the time by his curious 
notions and wonderful power of grumbling. A 
person beside him, who appeared to know his 
ways, dragged him into conversation, whether he 
would or not. He maintained there was nothing 
In Caiiada like what he had seen in Scotland ; his 
wheat had been destroyed by the midge, year after 
year, or ^y the rust ; his potatoes, he averred, had 
never done well, and every thing else had been 



884 An Irish Laborer. 

alike miserable. At last he seemed to have got 
through his lamentations, and his neighbor struck 
in — " Well, at any rate, Mr. M'Craw, you can't 
say but your turnips are trst-rate this year ; why, 
one of them will fill a bucket when you cut it up 
for the cattle." But Mr. M'Craw was not to be 
beaten, and had a ready answer. "They're far 
owre guid — I'll never be fit to use them — the 
half o' them 'ill rot in the grund, if they dinna 
choke the pu'r kye wi the size o' them." The 
whole of us laughed, but Mr. M'Craw only shook 
his head. As we were trotting along we overtook 
an Irishman — a laboring man — and were hailed 
by him as we passed. " Will ye take us to Inger- 
soll for a quarter (an English shilling) ? " The 
driver pulled up — made some objections, but at 
last consented, and Paddy instantly pulled out his 
money, and I'eached it into the hand which was 
stretched down to receive it. " Jimip in, now — 
quick." But, indeed, he needn't have said it, he 
was only too anxious to do so. The coach window 
was down, and the pane being large, a good-sized 
opening was left. In a moment Pat was on the step 
below ; the next, first one leg came through the 
window-frame, amidst our unlimited laughter ; then 
the body tried to follow, but this was no easy busi- 
ness. " Wait a minit. I'll be thro' in a minit," he 
shouted to us. " Get out, man, do ye no ken the 
use o' a door?" urged Mr. M'Craw. But in the 
mean time Pat had crushed himself through, in some 



A Srentleman and his Dog. 385 

way, and liad landed in an extraordinary fashion, 
as crently as he could, across our knees. We soon 
got him into his seat, but it was long before we 
ceased laughing at the adventure. He could never 
have been in a coach in his life before. I saw a 
misfortune happen in an omnibus some years after, 
on the way down to Toronto from the North, which 
was the only thing to be compared to it for its effect 
on the risible powers of the spectators. A gentle- 
man travelling with me then, had a fivorite dog 
with him, which lie was very much afraid he might 
lose, but which the driver would not allow him to 
take inside. At every stoppage the first thought 
of both man and beast seemed the same, to see if 
all Avas right witli the other. The back of the 
omnibus was low, and the doo; was eao-er to get in, 
but he and his master could only confer with each 
other from opposite sides of the door. At last, as 
we got near the town we came to a halt once more. 
The gentleman was all anxiety about his dog. 
For the fiftieth time he put his head to the window 
to see if every thing was right. But it happened 
that, just as he did so, tlie dog was in full flight for 
the same opening, having summoned up all his 
strength for a terrible jump through the only en- 
trance, and reached it at the same moment as his 
master's face, against which he came with a force 
which sent himself back to the ground and sorely 
disturbed his owner's composure. It was lucky the 
animal was not very large, else it might have done 

33 



386 New England Emigiants. 

serious damage ; as it was, an astounding sliock waa 
the only apparent result. It was a pity he was hurt 
at all, but the thought of blocking off the dog with 
his face, as you do a cricket ball with a bat, 
and the sublime astonishment of both dog and 
man at the collision, were irresistibly ludicrous. 
On our way from London to Lake Huron we 
came on a curious sioht at the side -of the road — a 
New England family, on their way from Vermont 
to Michigan, travelling, and living, in a wagon, 
like the Scythians of old. The wagon was of com- 
paratively slight construction, and was arched over 
with a white canvas roof, so as to serve for a con- 
veyance by day, and a bedroom by night, though it 
must have been hard work to get a man and his 
wife, and some children, all duly stretched out at 
full length, packed into it. Some of them, I suppose, 
took advantage of wayside inns for theii nightly 
lodging. A thin pipe, projecting at the back, 
showed that they had a small stove with them, to 
cook their meals. Two cows were slowly walking 
behind, the man himself driving them ; and a tin 
pail, hanging on the front of the wagon, spoke of 
part of their milk being in the process of churning 
into butter by the shaking on the way. They were 
very respectable looking people — as nearly all 
New Englanders are — and had, no doubt, sold off 
their property, whatever it might have been, in 
their native State, to go in search of a new " loca- 
tion," as they call it — that is, a fresh settlement 



New England Emigrants. '387 

111 the Far West, with the praises of which, at that 
time, the coui try was fulL It must have taken 
thein a very long time to get so far at such a snail's 
pace ; but time would eventually take a snail round 
the world, if it had enough of it, and they seemed 
to lay no stress whatever on the rate of their pro- 
gress. They had two horses, two cows, and the 
wagon, to take with them, until they should reach 
their new neighborhood ; and to accomplish that 
W' as worth some delay. One of my fellow-travel- 
lers told me that such wagon-loads were then an 
every-day sight on the road past Brantf(jrd ; and 
indeed I can easily believe it. Michigan w^as then 
a garden of Eden, according to populai report ; 
but it was not long in losing its fame, which passed 
to Wisconsin, and from that has passed to other 
States or territories since. The New England folks 
are as much given to leaving their own country as 
any people, and much more than most. Their own 
States are too poor to keep them well at home ; and 
they have energy, shrewdness, and very often high 
principle, which make them welcome in any place 
where they may choose to settle in preference. 
I know parts in some of the New England States 
where there are hardly any young men or young 
women ; they have left for the towns and cities 
more or less remote, where they can best push 
their fortunes. It is the same very much in 
Nova Scotia, a nd, indeed, must be so with all poor 
countries. 



888 A Potato Pit. 

I was very glad, when I got home, to find all 
my ch'cle quite well, and had a busy time of it for 
a good while, tellino; them all I had seen and heard. 
They were busy with their fall-work — getting the 
potatoes and turnips put into pits, to keep them 
from the frost when it should set in, and getting 
ready a great stock of firewood. Our pit was a 
curious affair, which I should have mentioned ear- 
lier, since we made it in the second fall we were 
on the river. We dug a great hole like a grave, 
many feet deep, large enough to hold a hvxndred 
bushels of potatoes, and I don't know what besides. 
The bottom of this excavation was then strewea 
with loose boards, and the sides were walled round 
with logs, set up side by side, to keep the earth 
from falling in. On the top, instead of a roof, we 
laid a floor of similar logs, close together, and on 
this we heaped up earth to the thickness of about 
three feet, to keep out the cold, however severe it 
might be. The entrance was at one end, down a 
short ladder, which brought you to a door, roughly 
fitted in. The first year it was made, we paid for 
imperfect acquaintance with such things by bringing 
a heavy loss on ourselves. We had put in eighty 
bushels of potatoes, and, to keep out the least trac* 
of frost, filled up the hole where the ladder was 
with earth. But in the spring when we opened 
the pit to get out our seed, we found the whole 
heap to be worthless. ] remember the day very 
well ; it was very bright and beautiful, and we 



The Winter's Wood. 389 

were all in high spirits. The earth was removed 
from the ladder end in a very short time, and young 
Grahame, one of a neighbor's boys, asked leave to 
go in first, and bring out the first basketful. Down 
he leaped, pulled open the door, and crept in. We 
waited a minute, but there was no sign of his com- 
ing out again. AVe called to him, but got no an- 
swer ; and at last I jumped down to find the poor 
little fellow overpowei'ed from the effects of the 
carbonic acid gas, with which the pit was filled. 
The earth at the ladder end had entirely prevented 
the necessary ventilation, and the potatoes had 
*' heated," and had become perfectly rotten. We 
managed better after this by putting straw instead 
of earth into the opening ; but the right plan would 
have been to sink a small hollow tube of wood — 
a slender piece of some young tree, with the middle 
scooped out, through the top, to serve as a ventila- 
tor. It was a great loss to us, as the potatoes 
were then at the unusual price of a dollar a bushel, 
and eighty dollars were to us, at that time, a small 
fortune. 

The laying in the winter's wood was a tedious 
affair: it was cut in the fall, and part of it dragged 
b}' the oxen to the house in the shape of long logs ; 
but we left the greater part of the drawing till the 
snow came. It was a nasty job to cut off each day 
what would serve the kitchen, and keep the fires 
brisk ; and I sometimes even yet feel a twinge of 
conscience at the way I used to dole out a fixed 

33* 



390 Cliopping Firewood. 

number of pieces to my sisters, keeping it as small 
as possible, and much smaller than it should have 
been. I was willing enough to work at most things, 
and can't blame myself for being lazy ; but to get 
up from the warm fire on a cold morning to chop 
fire-wood, was freezing work ; though this should 
certainly not have kept me from cutting a few 
more sticks, after all. I am afraid we are too apt 
to be selfish in these trifles, even when we are the 
very reverse in things of more moment. If I had 
the chance, now I am older, I think I would atone 
for my stinginess, cost me what freezing it might. 



Tlioughts for the Future. 391 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Thoughts for the future. — Changes. — Too hard studj'. — Educatior 
in Canada. — Christmas markets. — Winter amusement.s. — Ice- 
boats. — Very cold ice. — Oil-springs. — Changes on the farm. — 
Growth of Canada. — The American climate. — Old England 
again. 

WHEN we had been five years on the farm, 
and Henry and I, and the girls, were now 
getting to be men and women, the question of wliat 
we should do to get started in the world, became 
more and more pressing. Robert wished to get 
married ; Henry and I, and the two girls, all alike, 
wanted to be off; and the farm was clearly unfit to 
support more than one household. It took a long 
time for us to come to any conclusion, but at last 
we decided that Robert should have the land, that 
the sii'k should be sent for a time to a school doAvn 
the country, and Henry and I should go to To 
ronto, he to study medicine, and I law. Of course, 
all this could not be managed at once, but it was 
greatly facilitated by remittances from my brothers 
in England, who undertook by far the larger pro- 
portion of the cost. I confess I felt more sorrow at 
leaving the old place 1 han I had expected, though 



392 Too hard Study. 

it was still for years to be my home whenever I got 
free for a time ; and it was long before I could get 
fairly into Blackstone, and Cliitty, and Smith. 
Had I known how my life would ultimately turn, 
I don't think I should ever have troubled them, for 
here I am now, my law laid aside, snugly in Eng- 
land again, a partner in the mercantile establish- 
ment of my brothers, who had continued at home. 
I did not like the law in its every-day details of 
business, though all must recognize the majesty of 
the great principles on which the whole fahric rests ; 
and I got tired utterly of the country, at last, per- 
haps from failing health, for I bent with too much 
;?eal to my studies when I once began. The 
chance of leaving Canada for my native land was 
thus unspeakably pleasing ; and it rewarded the 
gratitude with which I once more reached it, by 
giving me back a good part of the strength I had 
lost. When I look back on the years I spent over 
my books, and remember how I presumed on my 
youth, and tasked myself night and day to continu- 
ous work, it seems as if my folly had only been 
matched by my guilt. To undermine our health is 
to trifle with all our advantages at once. Honest, 
earnest work is all well enough, and nobody can 
ever be any thing without it, but if there be too 
much of it, it defeats its own object, and leaves him 
who has overtaxed himself behind those who have 
made a more discreet use of their strength. I 
would gladly give half of what I learned by all my 



Too hard Study. 393 

years of close study, for some of the health I lost in 
acquiring it. Indeed, I question if I gained more, 
after all my fagging on with a wearied body and 
mind, than I would if I had taken proper relaxa- 
tion and amusement, and returned fresh and vigor- 
ous to my books. The Genoese archers lost the 
battle of Cressy by a shower falling on their bow 
strings, while those on our side gained it by having 
their weapons safely in cases till the clouds were 
past. So, no doubt, it should be in our manage- 
ment of those powers within, on which our success 
in student life depends — let them be safely 
shielded betimes, and they will be fresh for action 
when others are relaxed and useless. How much 
time is spent when the mind is wearied, without 
our being able to retain any thing of what we read ! 
HoAv often have I closed my book, at last, with the 
feeling that really it might have been shut long 
before. I read in the office, and out of it, when- 
ever I had a chance ; had some book or other on 
the table at my meals ; kept rigidly from visiting 
friends, that I might economize every moment ; 
poked my fire, and lighted a fresh candle at mid- 
night, and gained some knowledge, indeed, but at 
the cost of white, or rather yellow cheeks — a stoop 
of the shoulders, and a hollow chest — cold feet, I 
fear, for life, and a stomach so weak that I am sel- 
dom without a memento of my folly in the pain it 
gives me. An hour or two in the open air every 
day would have saved me all these abatements, and 



894 Education in Canada. 

would hare quickened my powers of work so aa 
more than to make up for their being indulged in a 
little play. 

Since my day, great facilities have been afforded 
in Canada for education. There are now gram- 
mar scliools, with very moderate fees, in every 
part of the country, and a lad or young man can 
very easily get a scholarship which takes him free 
through the University at Toronto.* Every 
county has one or more to give away each year. 
There is thus every chance for those who wish to 
rise, and Canada will no doubt show some notable 
results from the facility she has liberally provided 
for the encourao-ement of native o-enius and talent. 

My being for a length of time in a town showed 
me new features of a colonial life which I should 
in vain have looked for in the country. In many 
respects I might easily have forgotten I was in 
Canada at all, for you might as well speak of get- 
ting a correct idea of England from living in a pro- 
vincial town, as of Canada by living in the streets 
of Toronto. The dress of the people is much tlio 
same as in Britain. Hats and light overcoats are 
not entirely laid aside even in winter, though fur 
caps and gauntlets, after all, are much more com- 
mon. The ladies sweep along with more show 

* The university has been long established, but since I attended 
its classes, it has been put on a more liberal basis — the number 
of chairs enlarged, and facilities for obtaining its advantage! 
greatly increased. 



Christmas Markets. 395 

tlian In England, as if they dressed for out of doof 
display especially ; but they are, no doubt, tempted 
to this by the clearness and dryness of the air, 
which neither soils nor injures fine things, as the 
coal-dust and dampness does in English towns. 
Tilt, most plainly-dressed ladies I used to see were 
the wife and daughters of the governor-general. 

The markets at Christmas were usually a greater 
attraction to many people than they used to be in 
England. If the weather chanced to be cold, you 
woukl see huge files of frozen pigs standing on their 
four legs in front of the stalls, as if tliey had been 
killed when at a gallop ; countless sheep hung 
over-head, with here and there one of their heads 
carefully gilded, to add splendor to the exhibition. 
Some deer were almost always noticed at some of 
the stalls, and it was not unusual to see the carcase 
of a bear contributing its part to the general show. 
As to the oxen, they were too fat for my taste, 
though the butcher seemed to be proud of them in 
proportion to their obesity. The market was not 
confined to a special building, though there was one 
for the purpose. Long ranges of farmers' wagons, 
ranged at each side of it, showed similar treasures 
of frozen pork and mutton, the animals standing 
entire at the feet of their owners, who sat among 
them waiting for purchasers. Frozen geese, ducks, 
chickens, and turkeys abounded, and that house- 
hold was very poor indeed wh'ch had not one or 
other to grace the festival. 



S96 Winter Amusements. 

Winter was a^reat time for amusement to the 
townspeople, from the nearness of the broad bay 
which in summer forms their liarbor, and, after the 
frost, their place of i-ecreation. It was generally 
turned into a great sheet of ice across its whole 
breadth of two miles, some time about Christmas, 
and continued like rock till the middle of April. 
As long as there were no heavy falls of snow to 
bury it, or after they had been blown off by the 
wind, the skating was universal. Boys and men 
alike gave way to the passion for it. The ice was 
covered with one restless throno; from mornino- to 
night. School-boys made for it as soon as they got 
free ; the clerks and shopmen were down the 
instant the shutters were up and the door fastened ; 
even ladies crowded to it, either to skate with the 
assistance of some gentleman, or to see the crowd, 
or to be pushed along in chairs mounted on run- 
ners. The games of different kinds played between 
large numbers were very exciting. Scotchmen 
with their " curling," others with balls, battering 
them hither and thither, in desperate efforts to 
carry them to a particular boundary. Then there 
were the ice-boats gliding along in every direction, 
with their loads of well-dressed people reclining on 
them, and their huge sail swelling overhead. 
These contrivances were new to me, though I had 
been so long in Canada. They consist of a three- 
cornered frame of AA'ood, large enough to give room 
for five or six people lying down or sitting on them, 



The Ice-trade of Toronto, 397 

the upper side boarded over, and the lower shod on 
each angle with an iron runner. A mast and sail 
near the sharp point which goes foremost furnish 
ihe means of propulsion. The two longest runners 
are fixed, but the short one at the back is worked 
by a helm, the steersman having actual control of 
the machine by its aid, and keeping within reach 
the cleats of the sail, that he may loosen or tighten 
it as he sees necessary. Many of the lads about 
were very skilful in managing them, and would sail 
as close to the wind, and veer and tack, as if they 
Avere in an ordinary boat in the water, instead of an 
oddly-shaped sleigh on ice. A very little wind suf- 
ficed to drive them at a good speed if the ice was 
good, and there was a good deal of excitement in 
watchhig the cracks and air-holes as you rushed 
over them. I have seen them sometimes goin^ 
with great rapidity. They say, indeed, that occa- 
sionally they cross the harbor in less than four min- 
utes — a rate of speed equal to nearly thirty miles 
an hour. 

The ice-trade of Toronto is a considerable branch 
of industry during the winter, and gangs of men 
are employed for weeks together sawing out great 
blocks about two feet square from the parts of the 
bay where it is clearest and best for use. These 
are lifted by poles furnished with iron hooks, intj 
carts, and taken to houses especially prepared for 
keeping them through the hot weather of the fol- 
lowing summer. An ordinary wooden fram" 

34 



398 Spring Ice. 

building is lined inside with a wall all round, at 
from two to three feet from the outer one, and the 
space between is filled with waste tan bark rammed 
close, to keep out the heat when it comes. In this 
wintry shelter the cubes of ice are built up in solid 
masses, and, when full, the whole is finally pro- 
tected by double doors, with a large quantity of 
straw between them. In the hot months you may 
see light carts with cotton covering stretched 
over them in every street, carrying round the con- 
tents — now broken in more salable pieces — tlie 
words "Spring ice" on each side of the white roof 
inviting the housekeepers to supply themselves. 
In hotels, private dwellings, railway carriages, 
steamers, and indeed everywhere, drinking-water 
in summer is invariably cooled by lumps of gelid 
luxury, and not a few who take some of the one, 
finish by sucking and swallowing some of the 
other. I saw an advertisement lately in a New 
Orleans paper, begging the visitors at hotels not to 
eat the ice in the water-jugs this season, as, from 
the war having cut off the supply fi'om the North, 
it was very scarce. At table, in most houses, the 
butter is regularly surmounted by a piece of ice, and 
it seems a regular practice with some persons at 
hotels and on steamers to show their breeding and 
selfishness by knocking aside this useful orna- 
ment and taking a piece which it covered, as the 
coolest ani'I hardest, leaving the others to put it up 
again if tliey like. 



Canadiayi Ice. 399 

Boiling water never gets hotter than two hun- 
dred and twelve degrees, because, at that 1" eat it 
flies ofi'in steam, but ice may be made a great deal 
colder than it is when it first freezes. English ice 
is pretty cold, but it never gets far below thirty-two 
degrees, which is the freezing-point. Canadian 
ice, on the other hand, is as much colder as the 
air of Canada in which it is formed, is than tnat of 
England. Thus there is as much more cold in a 
piece of ice, of a given size, from the one country, 
than in a piece of a similar size from the otiier, and 
where cold is wished to be produced, as it is in all 
drinks in summer in hot climates, Canadian ice is, 
of course, much more valuable than any warmer 
kind would be. The Americans liave long ago 
tliought of this, and have created a great trade in 
their ice, which is about as cold as that of Canada, 
taking it in shijis, prepared very much as the ice- 
houses are, to India, and many other countries, 
where it is sold often at a great profit. You read 
of the ice crop as you would hear farmers speak of 
their crop of wheat or potatoes. They have not 
got so far as this that I know of in Canada, but if 
Boston ice can command a good price in Calcutta or 
Madras, that of the Lower St. Lawrence should be 
able to drive it out of the market, for it is very 
much colder. A few inches of it are like a concen- 
trated portable winter. 

In the fine farms round Toronto a great many 
fiel<ls are without any stumps, sometimes from theif 



iOO Oil Springs. 

having been cleared so long that the stumps have 
rotted out, and sometimes by their having been 
])ulled out bodily as you would an old tooth, by a 
stump machine. It is a simple enough con 
trivance. A great screw is raised over the stump 
on a strong- frame of wood which is made to enclose 
it ; some iron grapnels are fastened into it on dif- 
ferent sides, and a long pole put sticking out at one 
side for a horse, and then — after some twists — 
away it goes, with far more ease than would be 
thought possible. The outlying roots have, of 
course, to be cut away first, and a good deal of dig- 
ging done, to let the screw, and the horse or horses, 
have every chance, but it is a mucli more expedi- 
tious plan than any other known in Canada, and 
must be a great comfort to the farmer by letting 
him plough and harrow without going round a wil- 
derness of stumps in each field. 

A singular discovery has been made of late years 
about ten miles behind Robert's farm in Bidport, 
of wells yielding a constant supply of petroleum, or 
rock oil, instead of water. The quantity obtained 
is enormous, and as the oil is of a very fine quality 
and fit for most ordinary purposes, it is of great 
value. Strangely enough, not only in Canada but 
also in the States, the same unlooked-for source has 
been found at about the same time, supplying the 
same kind of oil. The wells of Pennsylvania are 
amazingly productive. I have been assured that 
there is a small river in one of the townships of the 



Oil Springs. 401 

State, called Oil Creek, which is constantly covered 
with a thick coat of oil, from the quantity that 
oozes from each side of the banks. The whole soil 
around is saturated Avith it, and this, with the 
necessity of fording the water, has destroyed a 
great many valuable horses, which are found to get 
inflamed and useless in the legs by the irritation 
the oil causes. Wells are sunk in every part of 
the neighborhood, each of which spouts up oil as an 
artesian well does water, and that to such an amaz- 
ing extent, that from some of them, hundreds of 
barrels, it is affirmed, have been filled in a day. 
Indeed, there is one well, which is known by the 
well of "The Brawly," which, if we can believe 
the accounts given, in sixty days sponted out thirty- 
three thousand barrels of oil, and some others are 
alleged to have yielded more than two thousand 
barrels in twenty-four hours. Unfortunately, pre- 
parations had not, in most cases, been made for 
catching this extraordinary quantity, so that a great 
proportion of it ran off" and was lost. The depth 
of the well varies. Some are close to the surface, 
but those which yield most are from five to eight 
hundred feet deep, and there, seemed to reach a 
vast lake of oil which is to all appearance inex- 
haustible. They manage to save the whole pro- 
duce now by lining the wells, which are mere holes 
about six inches in diameter, for some depth with 
copper sheathing, and putting a small pipe with 
stop-cocks in at the top, which enables them to con- 

3i* 



402 Oil Springs. 

trol the flow as easily as tliey do tliat of water, 
If we think of the vast quantities of coal stored up 
in different parts, it will diminish our astonishment 
at the discovery of these huge reservoirs of oil, for 
both seem to have the same source, from the vast 
beds of vegetation of the early eras of the globe ; 
if, indeed, the oil does not often rise from decom- 
position of coal itself, for it occurs chiefly in the 
coal measures. We shall no doubt have full scien- 
tific accounts of them, after a time, and as they 
become familiar we shall lose the feeling of wonder 
which they raised at first. Except to the few who 
are thoughtful, nothing that is not new and strange 
seems worthy of notice ; but, if we consider aright, 
what is wonderful in itself is no less so because we 
have become accustomed to it. It is one great dif- 
ference between a rude and a cultivated mind, that 
the one has only a gaping wonder at passing events 
or discoveries, while the other seeks to find novelty 
in what is already familiar. The one looks only 
at a result before him, the other tries to find out 
causes. The one only looks at things as a whole, 
the other dwells on details and examines the minut- 
est parts. The one finds food for his curiosity in 
his first impressions, and when these fade, turns 
aside without any further interest ; the other dis- 
covers wonders in things the most common, insig- 
nificant, or apparently worthless. Science got the 
beautiful metal — aluminium — out of the clay 
which i<iTiorance trod under foot : through Siif 



Changes on the Farm. 403 

Humphrey Davy it got iodine out of tlie scrapings 
of soap-kettles, which the soap-boilers had always 
thrown out, and it extracts the beautiful dyes we 
call Magenta and Solferino, from coal-tar, which 
used to be a worthless nuisance near every gas- 
house. 

My brother Robert's farm, when I last saw it, 
was very different from my first recollection of it. 
He has a nice little brick house built, and frame 
barns have taken the place of the old log ones that 
served us lono; aso. After our leaving he com- 
menced a new orchard of the best trees he could 
get — a nursery established sixty miles off down 
the river, supplying young trees of the best kinds 
cheaply. They have flourished, and must by this 
time be getting quite broad and venerable. He 
has some good horses, a nice gig for summer, with 
a leather cover to keep off the sun or the storm, 
and a sleigh for winter, with a very handsome set 
of furs. Most of the land is cleared, and he is able 
to keep a man all the time, so that he has not the 
hard work he once had. His fences are new and 
good, and the whole place looked very pleasant in 
summer. All this progress, however, has not been 
made from the profits of the farm. A little money 
left by a relative to each of us gave him some capi- 
tal, and with it he opened a small store on his lot 
in a little house built for the purpose. There was 
no pretence of keeping shop, but when a customer 
came he called at the house, and any one who hap- 



404 Growth of Canada. 

pened to be at hand went with him and unlocked 
the door, opened the shutter, and supphed him, 
locking all safely again when he was gone. In this 
primitive way he has made enough to keep him 
very comfortably with his family, the land provid- 
ing most of what they eat. They have a school 
within a mile of them, but it is rather an humble 
one, and there is a clergyman for the church at the 
wharf two miles down. Henry established himself 
in a little village when he first got his degree, but 
was thought so much of by his professors that he 
has been asked to take the chair of surgery, which 
he now holds. My two sisters, Margaret and 
Eliza, both married, but only the former is now 
living, the other having been dead for some years. 
Margaret is married to a worthy Presbyterian 
minister, and, if not rich, is, at least, comfortable, 
in the plain way familiar in Canada. 

When we first went to Canada no more was 
meant by that name than the strip of country along 
the St. Lawrence, in the Lower Province, and, in 
the Upper, the peninsula which is bounded by the 
great lakes — Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Since 
then, however, the discovery of gold in California 
and Eraser's River has given a wide range to men's 
thoughts, and awakened an ambition in the settled 
districts to claim as their domain the vast region of 
British America, stretching away west to the shores 
of the Pacifi(;, and north to the Arctic Ocean. I 
used to think all this vast tract only fit for the wild 



TJie American Climate. AQly 

animals to wliicli it was for the most part left, but 
there is nothing like a little knowledo;e for chano- 
ing mere prejudice. There is of course a part of it 
which is irredeemably desolate, but there are 
immense reaches which will, certainly, some day, 
be more highly valued than they are now. The 
nearly untouched line on the north of Lake Huron 
has been found to be rich in mines of copper. The 
Red River district produces magnificent wheat. 
The River Saskatchewan, flowing in two great 
branches from the west and north-west to Lake 
Winnepeg, drains a country more than six times as 
large as the whole of England and Wales, and every- 
where showing the most glorious woods and pniiries, 
which are proofs of its wealth as an agricultural 
region. The Mackenzie River drains another part 
of the territory eight times as large as England and 
Wales together, and the lower parts of it, at least, 
have a climate which promises comfort and plenty. 
It is no less than two thousand five hundred miles 
in length, and is navigable by steamboats for twelve 
hundred miles from its mouth. It is a singular 
fact that the further west you go on the North 
American continent, the milder the climate. Van- 
couver's Island, which is more than two hundred 
miles further north than Toronto, has a climate like 
that of England ; instead of the extremes of Can- 
ada, as you go up the map, the difference between 
the west and east sides of the continent becomes as 
great ^ >f we were to find in Newcastle the same 



406 The American Climate. 

temperature in winter as French settlers enjoy in 
Algiers. The musk oxen go more than four hun- 
dred miles further north in summer, on the we.>- 
tern, than they do on the eastern side, and the elk 
and moose-deer wander nearly six hundred miles 
further north in the grass season, on the one than 
on the other. 

It is indeed more wonderful that the east side of 
America should be so cold than that the west 
should be so much milder. Toronto is on a line 
with the Pyrenees and Florence, and yet has the 
climate of Russia instead of that of southern France 
or Italy ; and Quebec, with its frightful winters 
and roasting sunnners, would stand nearly in the 
middle of France, if it were carried over in a 
straight line to Europe. Yet we know what a 
wonderful difference there is in England, which is, 
thus, far to the north of it. It is to the different 
distribution of land and sea in the tAvo hemispheres, 
the mildness in the one case, and the coldness in 
the other, must be attributed. The sea which 
stretches round the British Islands, wai'med by the 
influence of the Gulf Stream, is the great source of 
their comparative warmth, tempeting, by its nearly 
uniform heat, alike the fierce blasts of the north 
and the scorching airs of the south. In Sir Charles 
Lyell's " Principles of Geology," you will find 
maps of the land and sea on the earth, so arranged, 
that in one, all the land would be comparatively 
temperate, while in the other, it would all be com- 



Old England again 407 

parativelj cold. In America it is likelj that the 
great mountains tliat run north and soutli in three 
vast chains, beginning, in the west, with tlie Cas- 
cade Mountains, followed, at wide distances, by" the 
Rocky Mountains, rising in their vast height and 
length, as a second barrier, on the east of" them, 
and by the vast nameless chain which stretches, on 
the east side of the continent, from the north shore 
of Lake Superior to the south of King Wilham's 
Land, on the Arctic Ocean — modify the climate 
of the great North-west to some extent, but it is 
very hard to speak with any confidence on a point 
so littlo known. 

I have already said that I am glad I am back 
again in dear Old England, and I repeat it now 
that I am near the end of my story. I have not 
said any thing about my stay in Nova Scotia, 
because it did not come within my plan to do so, 
but I include it in my thoughts when I say, that, 
after all I have seen these long years, I believe 
" there's no place like home." If a boy really 
wish to get on and work as he ought, he will find 
an oj^ening in life in his own glorious country, 
without leaving it for another. Were the same 
amount of labor expended by any one here, as I 
have seen men bestow on their wild farms in the 
bush, they would get as much for it in solid com- 
fort and enjoyment, and would have around them 
through life the thousand delio;hts of their native 
land. Some people can leave the scene of then 



408 Feeling toward England. 

boyhood and tlie friends of their youth, and even 
of their manhood, without seeming to feel it, but I 
do not envy them tlieir indifference. I take no 
sliame in confessing that I felt toward England, 
while away from it, what dear Oliver Goldsmith 
Bays so touchingly of his brother : 

" Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart, uiitravell'd, fondly turns to thee : 
Still to my country turns, with ceaseless pain, 
Aiid dra<rs at each remove a lengthening chain.** 



1 




'^;s-,^ j-V^#V 



"^^ v-^' 






.^^ - 








>f-. 



O 



A"* 



xO°<. 



^■'\^°" .-/^^ ^-'^"''.V^ 




^,^' f,^/hj^o ■%^- 



^•* '- 



-V 



^"^^ -2^. 



•^^^'% 




^ 'f'. 






,-0' 



# <p 



o> -^c^ 






,. ^' * A > 



'■^^ v"^ .xV -^ 






. o- 







-^ c,'^ 
^ V 

•x^'' "-^. 







THE Hi/ir °'^""'j "-' ^'LtAbt 



.^^ FEB. 66 

■v^ N. MANCHESTER, 
_ INDIANA 



